Sky is over
by Yaodai
Summary: After running away, you need to stop. After you stop, you need to get back on your feet. And then try to live once again, knowing there are mistakes, that simply cannot be undone. Sequel to "Out of the box". AU to Xiaolin Showdown.
1. Raising from the grave

**A/N: Hi there! Yeah, I'm kind of starting a new thing here. I just love the attention, I guess. And writing, because it is fun. **

**This is sequel to "Out of the Box", but I'm pretty sure that it could work as stand-alone. Jack would think about the past and analyze it here and there, so it would be also pretty big spoiler for the first story. **

**This is also somewhat a timetravel/do-over/fix-it fic. But I' not going to write the episodes down - I would die of boredom that way. And I kind of wanna to change things here and there, starting with interactions between characters, families, etc., so if there would be no reason to bring specific events from the show, I would set to just signalize the thing had happened and move on to more important (for my story) stuff. **

**I'm sorry, If I screwed up grammar somewhere. Sometimes I just don't know what the hell I'm doing. So, I kind of need a betareader. I know there is section with beta profiles on this side, but it is kinda hard to pin-point people, who are still active. **

**Chapter 1**

**Rising from the grave (sort of)**

There wasn't much of a plan in the first place. He was too consumed in creating machine and then there just wasn't enough time to think everything through. Well, he planned to do so after confirming that his portal was indeed working and indeed opening gateway to the alternative universe. But his luck was as bad as always and Kimiko decided to show up, actually worried about him. It was kind of cute. Really nice, if he was to be honest. Somebody actually did care enough about him to check things, when Jack failed to show up at the showdowns. Enough to try to talk him out of the whole idea. That was part of the reason, why he jumped into new world without planning. Because even if she failed the first time, Kimiko was rather persistent person. She would try again and again, and would bring friends with her, and Jack would eventually agree to stay, completely brought by all that nice, warm feelings… and then shit would hit the fan and boy genius would end up in secret military facility somewhere, chained to his work, creating machines of destruction for whatever army would manage to snatch him first. Jack had nothing against creating machines of destruction, but for himself, not others. Besides, he was scared and tired, and there was just no other, no safer choice than just try his luck again. Luckily, he tested the machine setting coordinates to universe, where his another self was already gone. So it was just about few steps in the right direction.

Taking place of dead Jack was rather anticlimactic and even slightly depressing. It was good for him, sure, the fact that no one could tell him and now-dead-Jack apart, but heck, he hoped that his parents would be able to tell that something changed. No such luck. They were completely oblivious to the whole impostor deal. Even were acting like nothing happened, like they miraculously alive son was not much a deal anyway.

It actually hurt him a little, through he didn't expected much. They weren't one of those pathological kind of families with all screaming and throwing dishes at each other, not even close. Everybody was just so busy and there wasn't much time to talk, so Jack guessed they just didn't know him very well. There was something wrong about the whole deal, but he hadn't slightest idea what to do with it. Besides, he probably should just leave things be and do his own thing. Taking over the world with his mechanical army definitely would be more difficult with parents constantly checking on him in his basement slash evil genius lair.

Actually, he should decide what he's going to do. Without setting Wuya free the Shen Gong Wu would not become active, at least he didn't think so. But just doing whatever the nasty witch wanted him to do was not the best idea either. And Jack really wanted his Monkey Staff. And other things. Building things without using changing Chopsticks was irritating. He wanted them back too. And even Wuya babbling over his head when he was working. It was quite lonely in his lair, without the ancient witch hovering over him. And all right, it would actually be nice to bump at the Xiaolin guys from time to time too. Even if they definitely were enemies.

Though no creating Mala Mala Jong, Raksha and other dangerous beings by mistake this time. Jack remembered the beatings all too well and wasn't eager to life through it for the second time. But he didn't remember much more - the showdowns, what was the order of Shen Gong Wu activations... Last time around he got too much on his mind to really care for such details and now it was biting him in the ass. Well, he could live with that, at least he know what things do not touch.

He already had the puzzle box where Wuya was imprisoned. It was lying in front of him on the table, waiting. Bunch of Jack-Bots was ready to action also. So, nothing to wait for, not really. Plans he could create on the spot. He already knew how to upgrade his robots to become a challenge for stronger Xiaolin warriors, so he knows how to build a machine to pinpoint Shen Gong Wu.

So... how the hell he opened this for the first time?

Jack toyed with the ancient puzzle box for few moments. And then smiled slightly. He found the right combination. Now it was just a few touches, and voila! Ancient evil free and ready to rumble! In the flash of brilliant light, with victorious roar, Wuya emerged in her ghostly form.

"You definitely do have thing or two for theatrics." Jack snorted. All the times she was on him because he was too concentrated at looking good while doing evil...

"Behold, because I'm Wuya, the most ancient of evil forces!"

"Nice to meet you" Jack shrugged. "I'm Jack Spicer, boy genius. Through I think I'm kind of on neutral side right now?"

"Fool!" barked Wuya. "There's not such a thing! And I can give you world you obviously desires!"

"And how do you know about that?" he blinked.

"You have a map on your desk." She said in a flat voice and pointed down.

"Oh!" Jack blinked. "Yeah, right. So tell me, how you do that without a body?"

And so she told him about Shen Gong Wu and he was trying not to yawn in too obvious way.

"Whatever" Jack finally said. "You obviously need that stuff to... something, otherwise you wouldn't be so eager to hunt them down, right?"

"So, you're observant one?" the creepy mask of Wuya smiled. "You definitely should be able to tell how useful these ancient artifact are... "

Then her eyes flashed white.

"No time to spare!" She screamed. "First of Shen Gong Wu revealed itself! The Mantis Flipcoin!"

"We can talk on the ride" Jack shrugged and walked towards the plane. Then looked back at Wuya, who looked a little bit lost. "Are you coming?"

"What is that strange device? And why you're wasting time, when we must hurry..."

"Easy now!" He opened the cockpit. "This is called a plane and it can move much faster than us on feet. I'll show you, jump in! Or er... fly in?" Jack scratched his head. It was difficult to tell with Wuya in this form. She looked skeptical, but decided to try it anyway.

Last time he didn't care much for her reaction, he was much more excited about the whole becoming ruler of the world deal. Now he got the moment to spare and it was definitely worth it. No man simply make Wuya's jaw drop.

"It is... definitely faster" she finally said, looking out of the window. "Humanity changed since I saw it for the last time."

"It kind of did. And you just meet a genius, so try to get used to this stuff."

"You build it yourself?" Wuya asked. "Most impressive."

"Oh, now you're trying to sweet–talk me, aren't you?"

"I do not!"

"Oh, you so are!"

"I'm the most powerful of Heylin Witches! I don't need somebody like you, boy!"

"Yeah, well, try to grab that mystical items of yours with your own hands. Oh, wait. You kind of have a problem with that one?" Jack asked sweetly, taking his time in having fun.

"Silence!" Wuya barked, really irritated with him right now.

"Listen, you need me more than I need you, at least right now" Jack snickered. "I know you could just try flying around and get another lackey to do your bidding, but you would waste a lot of time, while somebody else pick your precious item up. "

"What are you proposing?"

"If you want to work with me, fine by me" he shrugged. "But I would like to get something back."

"Shen Gong Wu aren't enough?"

"It is me who do all the work, and as I was saying, I could build a machine to find them for me. Seriously. "

"When I will regain my physical form..."

"Nah, too far in the future," Jack grimaced. He didn't really know what he wanted from the witch, but he wanted something more than mere promises. Wuya was rather bad with keeping her word, so he needed to milk something out of her before she decide to leave him. Raimundo managed to do so, basically selling the world to the dark side for a room full of video games. But what a man can get out of a ghost? "I would really like to get something more real than mere promises, Wuya. Besides, as an evil person, you're probably lying anyway, aren't you?"

"You're too clever for your own good, pest!" The witch snipped, rather irritated by the whole situation. Or because he didn't let her look at the pretty clouds outside in peace, hell if he know.

"Yeah, got you on that one." Jack smirked, while he continued the small talk. "You said, you're a witch, right?"

"Indeed. I'm a Heylin witch and the most powerful magical forces are at my disposal." That actually gave Jack an idea. Pretty crazy one, but there was nothing else on the table but a knowledge. And he liked knowledge a lot, knowing how much power it could give a man.

"So teach me."

"You wishes to learn Heylin magic?" Wuya looked at him like he just gone mad.

"Yeah, why not? It would be definitely something!" Because when he actually started to think about the whole idea, it was just getting better, and better! He was really miserable in fight, Jack–Bots to back him up or not, and any other advantage would be like ace in his sleeve. An ace which no one would be able to take from him, like every other thing he used.

"You cannot just learn those kind of skills overnight!"

"I get that it is difficult. But knowledge is power, right?"

"Did you by any chance learned the monk ways too?"

"Nah, heard that one on TV" Jack smiled, when Wuya blinked at him, not understanding what he was talking about. "When we get back I should probably show it to you. You even might like it."

"I won't like anything your miserable race has to offer!"

"You like the plane." he pointed out and Wuya growled at him.

Jack shook his head. Enough of making fun of ancient witch. She might decided it is time to phraze through him in the act of vengeance and that was one unpleasant experience.

"Whatever. Are we close now?"

"Turn left." she said. And her voice sounded like she was moping.

Jack blinked and obediently changed direction.


	2. From afar

**A/N: I'm looking for betareader. Or at least waiting for people telling me, how many times I managed to do something hilarious with English. I wont bite or grab my toys and walk away, I really need the information to get better.  
**

**Chapter 2**  
**From afar**

Like the first time, Jack managed to snatch Mantis Flipcoin before Xiaolin monks showed up. This time he decided to back off, simply jumping into his plane rather staying on the spot to gloat. He got now bigger fish to fry. He was improvising and that learning magic stuff just happened to fell out of his mouth. But Wuya agreed to teach him anyway, even if she found the idea rather hilarious. Even if shooting fire out of his hands and other stuff he saw in other world would be out of Jack reach, he would still at least know this time what was going on and how to save his life. It was something. He remember way to well how weak and useless he always fell when Chase Young or any another villain was on the scene, with how much ease the Xiaolin kids were able to take him down. He really needed everything he could get just to feel safe.

"I feel another one!" Wuya announced, turning away from the window. She really liked to watch the ground under them when they were flying, probably enjoying being so high over everything else.

"That soon?" Jack raised eyebrows. "So, where we're going now?"

"Not far," Wuya answered.

"Can you show me on the map, or something? It would make piloting easier." Jack proposed and pushed several buttons. Panel next to the second pilot seat beeped and the tablet with electronic map on it ejected from under it.

"We are moving with decent speed," the witch eyed him, than the map with slight grimace on her face.

"But we are not the only ones in the skies." Jack sighed, when she just looked at him, not really understanding what his deal was. "Many people are using flying machines to move around the globe. And flying around without license is pretty illegal."

"Are you afraid, my boy?" she chuckled.

"It depends," Jack shrugged and his expression darkened. "Crossing lines with public transportation won't be that bad. But bumping into military..."

"Aren't you overdramatic here?"

"This is a small machine, Wuya. They can easily shot me from the ground. And that just for crossing invisible border in the sky."

Wuya was silent for a moment.

"You people definitely overcomplicate things." She finally said. then looked at the map, trying to picture the image of Shen Gong Wu in her mind.

"It just happened to be a very strange times." Jack smiled slightly, trying to force his demons away. He was flying around for years and nobody even cached him. He just preferred to be more careful than before. Just because.

"Somewhere around there," Wuya waved at one point of the map. "Through to tell it for sure..."

"We need to fly around that localization anyway" Jack nodded. "But at least now I can choose the best way to go there. We can work on it later."

"Later?" Wuya snorted. "Do you really thing, I'm in need or more practice?!"

"No, not you!" He protested quickly. "I get it is difficult! Hell, I'm surprised that you can read maps so well. That long ago not many could even comprehend something like that."

Wuya eyed him again, but she stopped looking mad. For an ancient being, she was actually pretty easy to butter up. Through the reading map was impressive skill. For people of his age it was pretty natural, taught in school from early on, but in the ancient times for most maps looked just like pretty, but irrational scribbles.

"Anyway," he started again. "Can you tell me some more about the Heylin?"

"Heylin is the name for evil forces of the world. What else is there to know?"

"A lot?" He shrugged. "I mean, here is some sort of magic in the whole business, am I right?"

"Oh, such a bright brat you are!" Wuta rolled her eyes.

"No, seriously!" Jack chuckled a little. "The Shen Gong Wu were made by some guy on the Xiaolin, side, right?"

"Indeed. By no one else than Grandmaster Dashi, a man who imprisoned me for all these years by mere luck!"

"So, Xiaolin make magical doohickeys. What is Heylin deal?" He already knew a lot, but to get to the interesting part, he needed to force Wuya to talk. Besides, it was pretty funny – just watching her reactions – and it was taking his mind out of the whole military deal. "They are doing some sort of black magic? Or use elements...?"

"Don't be a fool!" she barked. "Xiaolin Dragons are in control of four elements from thousands of years!"

"Seriously?" Jack blinked. "Thousands?"

"The conflict is much older than stories about Dashi," the witch said. "But the elements were always servants of the Xiaolin, while the Heylin simply force universe to obey."

"Seriously?" he shook his head. That, was definitely new.

"We force unnatural into existence. We make powers of the world listen to our wishes and breaking the laws."

"Sounds kind of like teenager on the loose."

"No, you're just stupid."

"Do you think you really are supposed to say nasty thing to only one person in the world who can help you?" Jack raised eyebrow.

"Just shut up and fly this vehicle of yours. We're getting closer."

xxx

"It is most disgraceful that somebody managed to take first Shen Gong Wu before us" Omi was rambling for some time now and it started to get on nerves of rest of the group. Sure, they knew it was quite a great quest and sure it wasn't that good when somebody managed to get the Wu before them, but things happens.

"But who could do something like that?" Kimiko looked at Dojo. "Because not many even know about the Shen Gong Wu, right?"

"Look, I don't know" the dragon grimaced. "Pretty much everyone would be able to use the Shen Gong Wu. All you need is to call its name. "

"That's all?" The girl blinked.

"'Knowing the name seems to be a tiny little problem." Clay scratched his head under the hat. "You know, those items don't have name written on them, right?"

"Of course not!"

"See? So even if somebody took it by mistake, he won't use it." The girl smiled happily. "Problem solved!"

"Why do I have feeling it is not going to be so easy?" Raimundo looked at Dojo.

"Because you're right. "The dragon sighed. "You see, we are gathering them for a reason. Until now, the balance between the forces of good and evil was well... balanced. But something happened and Wu reacted to it. "

"What are you saying my friend is that some evildoer currently is a danger for entire world! We should seek him and defeat him, before more Shen Gong Wu will end in his evil claws!" Omi raised his hand high, while standing straight and proud, proclaiming his personal war or everything, that wasn't good.

"Yeah, sure" Raimundo rolled eyes. "And where are you going to find that evil dude?"

"I am going to..." Omi blinked. "I have no idea where I am going to seek this evil."

Brazilian boy snickered to that.

"I reckon' if somebody other than us is looking for the Wu, then he should be where another Wu is located. We just need to be a bit faster than last time."

"Sounds like a plan." Kimiko nodded.

"Well, good you have one, because I'm just feeling something...!" Dojo shrugged. "And we are not that far away either!"

"How convenient!" Raimundo smirked, but climbed on the back of the dragon to continue their hunt.

"What else can you tell us about that great evil?" Omi asked, when they were flying for a few minutes.

"I don't know much, kid, "Dojo would shrug if he could. "Master Fung thing it was Wuya, who was set free... but it is impossible. She was imprisoned by Dashi himself!"

"Well, somebody could free her from wherever she was..." Kimiko shrugged.

"A woman?" Omi looked at Dojo not sure if he heard him right. "But women are frail and definitely not a warriors, why should we be afraid of a woman?"

"Hey!" Kimiko protested. "Do you wanna to try your own flying skills?!"

"Woah, easy there!" Clay slightly raised his voice. "No reason to be so offensive, Omi!"

"But..."

"No but, that really wasn't nice. You don't just run around and say things like that to people!"

"But it is truth! I read it in a book!" Omi protested.

"And how old was that book, smartass?" Raimundo snorted.

"Whatever!" Kimiko grunted. "People wrote all sort of stupid in the books and they are continuing on doing that."

"But... its books! They are supposed to tell only the truth!"

"Sorry little buddy, but the world don't work like that." Clay patted Omi on the head.

"Yeah, they are right, bud" Dojo eyed them. "Anyway, Wuya isn't just a random witch, she's one of the most powerful on the Heylin side. You know, the bad guys."

"She was that dangerous?"

"Why else Dashi would close her in that puzzlebox?"

"Puzzlebox?" Raimundo raised eyebrows almost as high as his hairline. "Seriously?"

"Alright, he had quite a sense of humor. "

"Guess she's quite mad after something like that." Clay mumbled. "I know I would be."

They found the Wu after a few hour of searching the area and it was rather uneventful mission. Boring, to tell the truth, since the location where the Two Ton Tunic has been hidden was small city without anything spectacular about it. Then again, the Shen Gong Wu wasn't anything special at all too.

"It looks like very, very ugly t–shirt." Kimiko grimaced when they finally managed to spot the all–powerful artifact.

"I'm with you on that one. " Raimundo nodded, parody of wise expression on his face. "It looks like the stuff old people are wearing. No surprise than nobody else was interesting in looking for it."

"I would be careful with making my decision about it right now." Clay shrugged. "Maybe somebody just don't have fast enough transportation?"

"I prefer to think that somebody just lucked out with Mantis coin." Kimiko said, making sure that her hairpins were in their place. Flying around the world on the dragon's back might be pretty funny experience, but her hair hated strong winds, ant there were plenty of those up in the air. And today she was wearing one of her favorite wigs to make thing worse. It would be really awful, if the thing just fell off during the ride, no mention the embarrassing factor.

"We should bring the Shen Gong Wu to the temple at once!"

"I can hear yo without all that screaming, little guy."

They grabbed the tunic and with happily chit-chat climbed back on the dragons back. No one spotted two figures which were watching them from afar, one floating in the air, the second one standing still on one of the rooftops, with long black coat floating in the wind.

xxx

"Why are you just standing here, fool?" barked Wuya. "Go there and get the Shen Gong Wu before the monks do!"

"They're already there, Wuya" Jack shrugged. "And I'm no warrior, in hand to hand even with Mantis Flipcoin I would hit the ground in mere seconds. "

"So you just decided to let them win?"

"For now" he smirked. "Because they are going to bring the Tunic to the next Shen Gong Wu, aren't they? And we will be waiting"

"You just said that in the fight you're useless."

"in the fight, yes" he agreed. "But in the Showdown? Wuya, I'm going to totally own them. Besides, you promised to teach me."

"So, this is how you're going to play it?" she asked. "Force me to teach you, because otherwise you're just going to ignore the Shen Gong Wu?"

"You may think whatever you like, Wuya."

Because, seriously. Getting his ass kicked wasn't really high on Jacks list of priorities. Besides, the two ton Tunic was completely useless to him. No sense in wasting energy on things that he didn't need. And he didn't really know how to act among the monks either, he needed more time to think it over. They were not the same people that Jack remembered. The Japanese girl wasn't the same one that helped Jack out of military facility even if they shared face and voice, and name...

He shook his head, and Wuya send him rather strange look.

"Whatever" he said. "Just lets go, ok? I promise, next one is ours."

"I'm going to keep you on this promise" she warned, but flew into the plane without further complains.

They flew for quite some time in silence, each one in its own thoughts.

Finally, Wuya decided to speak. It was so suddenly, that jack jumped in his seat, completely surprised.

"If you want to learn, land this vehicle. We don't have anything interesting to do anyway."

Jack blinked, then nodded and obediently took the plane to the ground.

They were in the middle of nothing, no civilization in sight, just huge grass terrain, flat as board, with cerulean skies over it. It was quite pretty, Jack decided, looking around. Quite silent to. Nothing around, just sound of his own breathe and from time to time crack from vehicle cooling down after the flight.

"You sure your fling toy isn't going to break?" Wuya looked at the plane with suspicion in her eyes.

"No, it's just hot metal." He smiled. "When we get back home I might check thing or two, but it is pretty safe to use for quite few months from now."

"Well, it is your own body which would be annihilated in explosion, do as you wish" ghostly witch shrugged.

The lesson in Heylin magic was rather underwhelming. No fireworks, no fire shooting in the air, no breaking the surface of the ground. Just sitting there in the grass, breathing deeply and trying to get oneself mind blank.

"You sure this isn't some monk stuff?" Jack asked after awhile.

"Silence!" Wuya snapped. "The Xiaolon and Heilin arts are much more similar to each other than one would think. You need learn how to control your own mind before you even try grasp the other powers."

"I control my brain pretty well, thanks" Jack said, feeling a little bit hurt on the inside. Power of his mind was one thing he was sure of. He was a genius after all, he was able to build his own plane and army of robots, and he was barely old enough to drive.

"Is that so?" Wuya smiled gleefully. "Then why it is you're still lonely in your dark basement instead of ruling the world, or at least lead the nation to greatness? Why you're just that odd kind and not one people are wary of?"

"I'm a teenager, Wuya" Jack rolled his eyes. "Teens do not lead people anywhere.

"So now you're saying that you're just mediocre kid, Jack?"

"I didn't...!"

"ah, but you did!" she laughed. "I'm able to lead your mind wherever I like, Jack. You're weak not only as a warrior. You lack discipline, you lack control. Without it Heylin magic would simply take over and burn you into a crisp."

Jack swallowed.

That hurt even more, especially he knew she was right. It was more than just easy to distract him and the Xiaolin monks use it to their advantage more than just once. He couldn't even work on single project at time, because his mind was always wandering, always looking for new interesting things and simply throwing ideas away after finding more interesting ones. His carelessness had lead him more than once to the failure and finally forced him to flee as far away as it was possible. Sure, he could create the whole machine and run away yet again, but it wouldn't lead to anything at all.

He needed a plan, he needed to think his situation through. He needed to keep himself away from the whole military mess. He need to get better.

"Yeah" he admitted finally, smirking under his nose. "I'm worthless right now. But I won't just quit. I'm not quitter. I am going to get over it. I always do."

"Ha." Wuya smiled, watching him like some sort of a hawk, floating right in front of him.

"So, how do you do it?" He asked. "How do you make your mind blank?"

"You're an idiot" he shook her head. It looked rather silly in her ghost form. "Clear mind is not the same think as blank one. You do not want to stop thinking it would be simply foolish to do so."

"Then what am I supposed to do?!" he took his goggles and threw it on the grass with fury. "I don't get it!"

"This is not something you could learn overnight, Jack."

"Same thing they said about theoretical math" he rolled his eyes. "And look where I'm now, I'm building my own planes!"

"Patience you must learn too" Wuya sighed.

"Whatever you say, master Yoda" Jack snickered.

"What did you call me?"

"I'm not the only one who need to learn thing or two" he smiled, feeling a little better, even if Wuya lacking in popcultural references was because she was imprisoned for the last fifteen hundred years.

Jack breathed deeply and let his mind simply wander. If he could not force it to shut down - and if trying to do so was as stupid as the witch said it was - then he could at least check what his own brain wanted from him. He actually never tried to just sit on his ass, he was always working, always doing something, several things at once, mathematical calculations dancing beneath his eyes while designing new creations with cold metal under his fingers. Silence was something entirely new to him. But how he was supposed to switch his mind from chaos of entropy and thousands thoughts at once to the some sort of Jedi Code?

How in the hell the monks was able to do it?


	3. and up close

**Chapter 3**

**…and up close**

"Okay, now we just need to find the Eye of Dashi..."Raimundo mumbled under his breath, while looking around. This time, they ended up in the middle of nowhere, on the rather gloomy hills, with death trees all around them. The branches looked like crooked, sharp fingers of some sort of a witch. It was late evening too; sun had already set behind the horizon and the sky was on its way to turn dark blue, already in shady violets instead of bright orange. The clouds over them weren't looking exactly menacing, but it seemed that it was going to rain at some point in the night, so they should hurry. Besides, in complete darkness it would be rather difficult to see anything at all, no mention artifact that can fit inside your hand. At lest the Two Ton Tunic was difficult to not spot.

They scattered around, trying to spot anything that looked out of the place, but it was rather hard quest.

Right up to the moment, when Omi spotted something shiny on the one of the trees, dangling from branch pretty high over the ground.

"I believe, I found the Shen Gong Wu with my most fine eyes!"He yelled happily.

Just then, from behind the tree, somebody walked towards them, stopping right in between.

He was wearing black cloak, long and ragged quite a bit on its down parts, with irrregular holes and all. It might have even seen fire at some point. The cloak wasn't the most interesting part of the person anyway. It was a guy, yet he was wearing some sort of heavy make-up on his face, painting it completely white, with dark, thick shadows under the eyes. He wasn't standing that near, but it was easy to tell that his eyes were red anyway. They were almost burning in that colorless face of his, so were the fiery red hair of his.

"Woah, Halloween came early this year!" Raimundo couldn't stop himself from running commentary. "Or we found his home?"

"Who are you, kind stranger?" Omi bowed slightly in the way of the guy on their way. "And would you please step away, so we could take the Shen Gong Wu?"

Pendrosa blinked. Omi was always rather an oddball with his strange sentences, but this was rather surreal. Seriously, who talk like that to random menacing person in the middle of nowhere, spilling informations like beans all over the place? Even if the Halloween dude didn't know a thing about the Wu, now he would be at least interested. Naturally, situation happened to be even worse than that – dude knew about the Wu already.

"The name is Jack Spicer and no way I am baking up from that one!" Stranger said loudly with a smirk on his face.

Kimiko blinked, surprised by the outburst.

"That one... Its mean you took the Mantis Coin!" She somehow managed to put the few information they got together and end up with correct result.

"That's right!" Jack nodded in her direction.

"I am truly sorry, but we need to take the Shen Gong Wu to the temple!" said Omi with seriousness in his voice. "This is really important for the good of the world, especially as the Shen Gong Wu are truly dangerous items! Please, give them back!"

"I already know what they are," Jack said with an odd smile on his mouth.

"Stop playing around and get to the showdown already!" Omi felt cold, as he heard this voice. It seems old and creepy beyond imagination and he didn't need to know much to recognize strange violet figure now floating behind his new adversary. Only one person in this world could give that sort of dark aura just by being around.

"Wuya!" he screamed. He launched himself towards the tree, hoping that his sudden action took their enemies by surprise, giving him the chance to take the Shen Gong Wu before it fell into the evil's hands. No such luck. Just as he climbed all the way to the branch and reached towards the Eye of Dashi, the strange boy used his strange backpack to float towards it and cached the silvery chain on which the Wu was hanging. The artifact started shining with bright, golden light. Omi yelped with surprise.

"Yeah, yeah" the one called Jack Spicer rolled his eyes, like he didn't feel the aura of evil at all. And he wasn't even a tiny little bit surprised. "Hey, you, insert your name here, I challenge you to the Xiaolin Showdown!"

"Name's Omi and I accept!" He said quickly, not understanding what he was doing. But is seemed convenient and master Fung told him that he should try to be more elastic in his ways. "I shall not leave such powerful items in the hands of evil!"

Raimundo looked at Dojo.

"Care to tell us what is going on?"

"When the two people touch the Shen Gong Wu, there is going to be a fight called Showdown." Dragon quickly explained. "Each of the sides wager one Wu, the winner takes it all."

"And the challenge?" Kimiko asked not looking back from Omi and strange kid with evil floating nearby.

"It can be whatever you want!" The dragon shook. "The challenger always calls the terms."

So they waited uneasy, because black and reds were looking not really intimidating, but it was hard to tell what was going in the head of the goth-like teen. He could force Omi to do really creepy things, and he already accepted the terms...!

"The challenge is figure skating! Five minutes on ice, freestyle!"

The whole group blinked, not really believing their own ears, while Jack continued to explain terms of the winning the competition. Omi was nodding, but not really understanding what he was up to. The kid didn't even know how to use a cell phone, so frivolous things like icing would be completely alien for him.

"Did he really...?" asked Raimundo, looking at faces of the rest of the group.

"Yup." Clay just nodded.

The arena raised up from the ground, wide ring of the cold ice with huge auditorium. It looked almost like arena or stadium of some sorts. Huge reflectors were shining straight at the ice, making it almost white. On the one site, high over the seats, huge electronic board was located, destined to count the points both participants gather. On the sides, they could see enormous screens, showing up close everything what was going on the ice. The rest of the monks ended up on the other side, with clear view of the arena and screens.

"Why my clothes are shining?" Omi looked down at his clothes which were now frivolously covered in glitter. And they seemed much more tight than they usually were.

"Woah, sparkling! Cool!" proclaimed happily that Spicer guy. His attire was still black, but now shining with tiny red crystals. They both were wearing skates already, through were still standing right in front of the entrance to the ice rink.

"Gayest thing I ever saw…" Raimundo grimaced as the screens presented them view on their friend and his opponent. "Seriously, I'm not sure If I'm going to be able to sleep at night!"

"Oh, stop that!" Dojo burked. "It is something new. Try to enjoy the moment!"

"Do you want some time to get used to the ice?" Jack asked, deciding to play it nice. And he wanted a little time of his own. It was few years, since he was skating competitive and he wasn't sure how much his body remembered from his training.

"It do not seems that difficult, "Omi said bluntly. "But if you feel like you need to, then I would gladly agree to quick warm–up!"

Jack raised eyebrow, but nodded. Omi was being pretty clever, letting him go first and watching attentively how he was moving on the ice. Quite a surprise, because little monk was first one to run blindly into dangerous situation with that competitive spirit of his.

"Omi did it before, right?" Clay asked, after watching how the redhead moved on the ice and gave his skills a little test, simply sliding around in wide spiral, then stopping in the middle of movement, giving a graceful bow towards Omi.

"Nope" dragon shook his head.

"Darn!" The cowboy grimaced. "He's going to lose."

"Why?" Kimiko blinked. She took her phone out and was using the camera to get the whole thing saved, just for future laughs. Omi looked almost like little ball in national colors of Germany. "They didn't even started!"

"That Spicer guy is stiff, but he's still moving like a pro. He's done it before, in a place like that." He said with a frown on his face.

The rest of the monks just gaped at him.

"What? A cowboy can't watch the Olympics in figure skating?" Clay shrugged.

"Watching is one thing," Kimiko rolled her eyes. "You seems to know a lot about it."

"I like to know what I'm talking about," he gave her a little smile. Then it turned into nasty grimace, when he saw as Omi felt right onto his face, trying to mimic Spicer's movements. "Auch!"

Ice skating was much more difficult that it seemed to be. Jack Spicer looked most graceful, moving with ease however he liked, dancing on the ice, using not only his legs, but the whole body to slide around and control his speed. Omi found even standing to being very troublesome, tiny blades in his shoes were impossible to balance on. But he was supposed to be the Dragon of Water, and what else ice was but a frozen water?

The competition already started and he hadn't gained a single point, while his opponent was swirling around and the board on his side was going crazy with swapping number higher and higher. Through it was quite a surprise, when Spicer suddenly happened to be right next to him.

"Try to move a little faster!" he said and even demonstrated. "It would help with the balance. Maneuver your feet like that, if you want to stop."

"Thank you, but I am perfectly able to manage on my own!"

"Suit yourself," Jack shrugged and moved away.

Omi groaned and tried once again, this time falling on his backside instead of face. He was getting more frustrated with each moment passing, not able to progress. Finally, he decided to swallow his pride and do what he was told. It helped a little, through the strange movement was setting him off. Usually, he was able to control his own speed, now however ground under him seemed to decide for itself how fast it should resort from under his feet.

The failure was irreversible and utterly miserable. At least he managed to get a few points for learning how to move without crawling on the ice.

"I am most ashamed…" Omi proclaimed after the match ended. "I lose my first showdown and lost our Shen Gong Wu!"

"It's not your fault Omi!" Kimiko said quickly, because hurting Omi was really miserable sight. Lie somebody just took all of his joyful energy away. She wanted to hug little monk and tell him that everything is going to be okay.

"But it is!" he said. "It was I who lost the challenge!"

"You didn't even know what you were supposed to do!" said Raimundo, looking at the odd teen with anger. Luckily for the guy, he wasn't gloating. He was actually watching Omi, with head cocked to the side, one brown raised and strange smile on his mouth.

"You know, your friend is actually right, Cheese Ball," Jack said, patting Omi on the head. Monk raised his face to blink in Jacks direction. "I kind of used the situation, just don't beat me into bloody pulp for that."

He backed of, and then threw the Two Ton Tunic at Omi. It landed on his head, blocking his vision. He took it off, not really understanding the whole situation. The rest of the monks wasn't getting it either.

"Fool!" screamed Wuya. "What do you think you're doing?!"

"Woah, easy, woman!" Jack grimaced at ghostly figure of ancient witch. "Not so loud! I told you that the next one" he waved the Eye of Dashi in her direction. It almost went through the ghostly body. "Would be ours. There was nothing at all about getting the tunic."

"Ah. Is this how you wish to play it?" she asked narrowing her eyes.

"It seems so" he shrugged. "Now, are you coming, or do you wish to get back home on your own?"

"You are the most honorable warrior, Jack Spicer!" Omi bowed towards the odd teen. "I thank you greatly!"

It somehow make Jack more than uneasy. He was even visibly blushing and looking all around for the way out, like he needed to run away, because compliment were such a scary thing. And then he actually did run away with admirable speed.

"Did I said something wrong?" asked Omi, looking among them for some sort of an answer.

"I... don't think so?" Clay took hat off and scratched his head. "Guess somebody couldn't take a compliment with a straight face."

"Kinda cute" Kimiko giggled.

"You serious? That face-painted freak cute?" Raimundo waved his hand towards the place, where Jack was standing few moments ago. "And he was working with Wuya. Meaning, dude is totally evil!"

"Well, he did gave us the tunic back" Clay shrugged.

"I hope for his own good that he know what he's doing! " Dojo grimaced. "Baiting somebody like Wuya in that manner..."

"Yeah, that looked..." Kimiko tried to find right word. "Playful I think?"

"You can't just make fun of ancient evil!"

"He sure did."

xxx

"What. Was. That?" she asked, feeling how the anger was burning bright in her whole being.

"What do you mean?" asked Jack, clearly playing innocent with her.

"Why did you gave the tunic up? You won it!"

"Yeah, well, i don't need them to hate me" he shrugged.

"Do you plan to change side you're on, Jack Spicer?" Wuya asked with malice.

"No, I would look awful in that pajama of their "Jack grimaced. "But look at it my way. The more they don't like me, the more serious they're going to fight with me. But if I am able to get on their soft side..."

"Oh, so you planning on using their weak soft hearts against them?"

"Something like that" he shrugged.

"And it definitely not was weakness on your side?" she was prying harder.

"Think whatever you want, Wuya" he answered.

The witch snickered. So, her dear boy was truly playing neutral party in the whole good versus evil fight, or for some reason he felt sympathy for the temple brats? Most curious.

Jack Spicer was indeed a strange one. Clearly still childish and naive, not really understanding what he get himself into, yet strangely adapting to the situation in his own way. He even manage to play to his own strengths while fighting in the most idiotic showdown Wuya ever saw. His intelligence skills were useful for her even in this form. He was also much more persistent than she thoughts he would be. He was still struggling with the meditation, the most basic thing from everything he needed to learn from her to even try to use magic, but he was still trying, again and again. She wasn't sure if he was just too stupid to admit his defeat or too stubborn to stop once he set his mind onto something.

Funny kid.

Couldn't take a compliment with a straight face either, even if he was threatening her - of all being good and evil on this world! - in a way, that was mocking and friendly at the same time.

Funny kid, she looked at his still form. He was trying to find his inner peace yet again, but with his mind it was like heading straight into the eye of the storm, quite impossible task.

She phrased through him, waiting for one of his funny girly shrieks, but he just grimaced, not even opened his eyes.

What he wanted to prove? And why? So many questions wrapped in such tiny, irritating person.


	4. Small things

**Chapter 4**  
**Small things**

Jack decided, that universe was working in rather funny way. Or some things were just fixed, like in Doctor Who TV show. Because here he was, standing all alone, with no one else but Clay Bailey in front of him and Fist of Tebigong shining between them.

"Well," he said slowly. "That happened."

"Guess there is no other way than fight over it, partner?"

"Sorry!" Jack grinned. "Wuya would take my head if I just let you take another one of these."

"Why on Earth are you even working for her?" The cowboy asked. "She's bad news, I'm telling you!"

"Do you thing I don't know that?"

"You are not a bad guy, Spicer."

"Aw, that's cute!" Jack chucked. "You are trying to sweeten me up!"

"And it seems to not working." Clay sighed.

"Definitely," Jack nodded."So, I guess it is your turn to call a showdown?"

He didn't really needed the Fist, but Wuya would really bug him if he didn't try to get it. But there wasn't any reason why he shouldn't be friendly towards the monks. In the best possible scenario they would accept rule about playing it nice and safe, including calling for the showdown in turns. It would make his life definitely less stressful. And painful.

The rest of the monks managed to finally join them, just in time to see whole thing started. And even hear Wuya. For some reason today universe decided that it actually liked Jack. Or was just waiting to drop something really heavy straight at his head.

"Why are you letting him to decide?!" Wuya screamed. "Do you not know, how big advantage it is to decide?!"

"It's their turn!" He shouted back.

"Showdowns do not work in such way!" Omi managed to say, before the two others stopped him.

"What he said!" Wuya grunted. Then blinked. "I don't believe I just said that."

"Me neither," Dojo commented trying to find the most comfortable spot on Omi's head.

"So," Clay started. "My Two Ton Tunic versus yours Third arm Stash. Or you want to wager something else?"

"Nah, I'm peachy. Go on."

"The challenge is to catch that robin."

"Guys, seriously!" Raimundo facepalmed hard enough that everybody heard the slap. "First ballet on ice, now catching a birdie?! What the hell?!"

"They are trying to be creative?" Kimiko shrugged, not disturbed at all by the odd choices. She actually enjoyed unusual methods of fight more than traditional beating the crap out of each other. And was thinking about a few ideas on her own. No way in hell she's going to miss so much fun. She probably should call dad too and tell him all about those showdowns. It would be a pretty nice idea for a video game or two.

"More like beat some record at being totally gay?" Raimundo grimaced. "Seriously, what's he even thinking?"

"What is wrong with being happy?" Omi blinked.

"Sorry, but you lost me here for a moment..." Pedrosa gaped at the smallest monk. "What are you talking about?"

"You said just that! Showdowns like that are making people gay. It is mean that they are becoming happy, it is not?"

"Oh, Omi!" Kimiko giggled, then eyed Raimundo. "You do the talk."

"Me? Why?!"

"You bring that one on yourself, kid." Dojo joined the laugh.

Pedrosa facepalmed for the second time.

Meanwhile, Jack tried to catch the bird. Running after it wasn't working. His memories about this showdown were rather foggy. The most memorable part for the whole thing was his meeting with a tree, and it was rather painful one. He definitely didn't want to give his own impression of koala yet again, so he decided to change his tactics. Rather that flying after the bird into the threes, he landed and turned his heli-pad off. He guessed he could just wait for the blasted thing to land on some branch or elsewhere and try his luck then.

But walking slowly, waiting, and then walking even more slowly towards the little thing was more nerve wrecking than trying to get on Chase's Young good side. Every single time he was trying too fast. Or the robin had some sort of six sense. Or universe just plain hated him, or it was the Doctor Who thing. Whatever.

It ended same way as before, with Jack losing the Showdown. This time at least his head was whole.

"Well," Jack blinked. "That happened. Congratulations, I guess?"

"Why are you congratulating him?!" Wuya definitely had her opinion about the whole thing. "You fool! You just lost me three Shen Gong Wu!"

"Yeah, yeah, Whatever. Tone it down, would you?" Jack made a face and stepped back from the witch, because boy, she was able to scream loudly.

"Thank you too," Clay nodded in his direction.

The monks were having they little happy moment, while Jack was walking away, short of a pretty handy stash, with Wuya still screaming her ghostly lungs out at him.

Odd guy, that one, Clay decided.

xxx

"I still can believe you just let them take my Shen Gong Wu!" even several hours after the showdown with Clay, Wuya was still angry at him. And leaving her favorite TV channel on wasn't helping a bit. She was just floating around furiously, time or two flying through Jack just because he was on her way.

"Would you please stop already?" he whined, when she flew through him for the third time. "seriously, that was just one showdown!"

"I don't care! You're here to bring me the Wu, not lose them to these monks!"

"I promise, I'm going to win them back!" Jack sighed. "Just give me some time!"

"You're losing it on your worthless trinkets anyway" she snorted. "What use we could have of those machines anyway?"

"You like the plane..."

"Because I can find use for it! But the other things? All these robots, just to serve you tea..."

Jack sighed heavily. Sometimes, it was hard to stand the woman. But she got the point or two here. In the basement, there were a lot of Jack-Bots, fresh and not used even once. He definitely should bring them to the battle ground at least once, just to check out his upgrades against the monks. Or to buy himself a little more time while looking for the Wu, when they were already around him somewhere. But the monk would not take it well, he was sure of it. Right now, he managed to build pretty friendly basis between them and wasn't in hurry to get on their bad side. Getting beaten up definitely wasn't something he was waiting for.

On the other hand, if Wuya somehow managed to get her body back - maybe using Raimundo again, or maybe this time manipulating Ashley or somebody else - the monks would be completely unused to fight, because they would be lacking all that experience they gained while trashing his robots.

Jack felt like bashing his head at the wall. Multiple times.

"If you plan to do something, now would be a good time," Wuya hissed, floating just next to his head. "You still are lacking in control over your own brain. No mention the way you are moving is just laughable!"

"Oh, now you're just being cruel!"

"No, I'm not." she send him nasty look. "You said it yourself, you are completely useless in fight."

"That's exactly why I don't engage in them!"

"No, this is a reason why you are going to learn" she floated just before him, looking him right into the eyes. She was looking almost hypnotic with all swirling going on her mask, hypnotic and dangerous, and like really, really evil being.

"What do you mean?" Jack managed to mumble in small voice, moving as far away as he could.

Wuya, naturally, followed. If she had a body, she would probably pierce him into the wall.

"You are going to learn, instead of playing with your toys." The witch continued in menacing tone. "You show me yourself, there are almost unlimited possibilities to find what you seek in this world."

"I can learn how to fight from watching things on youtube!" he protested.

"So it is a teacher what you going to seek."

Jack swallowed.

"Aren't you forgetting about something?" he managed to say. His voice for some reason was waay to high for his liking.

"Yes," Wuya hissed. "But I cannot do a thing with someone so unprepared as you."

"So instruct me!" Jack protested. "If I start to learn from someone, then my time for finding the Wu for you would be severely cut out. Unless they are showing up only in specific hours?"

Now, her scream was much louder and even more scarier.

Jack found himself curled and screaming too, from the pure terror. Because seriously, that was scary.

Wuya always was able to force him to do whatever she wanted him to do. This time wasn't any different from the past. Through maybe she was paying a little more attention towards him than before. And was forcing him to do things that were making even less sense than even before.

And she found herself new entertainment too. Because nothing was making her feel better, than screaming her lungs out at him, when he was trying to force his brain into meditation. Because nothing was teaching people more about control, than scaring them to death. And nothing was more frustrating than trying to walk through some sort of kata while instructed by a ghost. That was just plain terrible experience. For both of them. Through Jack was sure, than Wuya was not as frustrated at the whole thing as he was. He ended up using his prototype of more humanoid robot as a teacher. It wasn't that hard to upload all interesting stuff into the machine, and because the robot was based on Jack himself, it was easier to get the movies right. It was still miserable and Jack still was finding himself doing stretches from his figure skating lessons on auto-pilot instead of repeating those odd, unfamiliar movements. They seemed just unnatural to his body and the body was protesting hurting all over after every time he was giving it a try.

At least she was satisfied in his abilities to use Shen Gong Wu. And sometimes even praised his unorthodox thinking. That was actually really nice and jack felt all warm and fuzzy on the inside after every positive world the witch said.

Wuya noticed that too, because every time she complimented him she was smirking. And she was definitely using it for her own agenda.

"Master Fung, Omi needs The Talk." Raimundo said, hoping that he somehow managed to talk the old monk into giving Omi lessons about life. Because Clay and Kimiko decided to bug him for it, after the whole oh so hilarious conversation during the last showdown.

"How so?" the old monk merely blinked, not stopping... whatever he was doing with that piece of paper and brush. Raimundo still was having problems with using Chinese while talking; writing complicated and very artistic bushes on paper was beyond him. At least he bas breaking the language less than Omi did. It was really hard to believe that the kid was using Chinese all his life and still was able to break it in so awful way.

"Well, you know..." Pendrosa scratched his head. "We have a girl on board and all..."

"I believe he is perfectly able to tell difference between boys and girls, young one," Old master continued doing his art thing. "And he also is perfectly able to respect one's privacy."

"But accident happens!" Raimundo protested. "Besides, if he meet somebody somewhere, and he would like that somebody, then... Well, you just need give him that 'keeps things safe' lesson!"

"Why, if you are so concerned about your friend fate, why wouldn't you do it yourself?" He actually chuckled. "I'm sure that young man like you got way better perspective at certain aspect of life than old monk."

Things were going bad, really, really bad and Raimundo found himself panicking. That was the last thing he wanted to do. Seriously. Even washing dishes from entire temple for the next month would be so much better than talking about things with Omi.

"You don't need to get into the details, if you feel uneasy." Master Fung definitely was having a lot of fun right now, even if his face seemed to be emotionless.

"But I don't want to..." He mumbled under his nose, feeling like crying.

"You brought it on yourself."

"Who told you?!" Raimundo screamed feeling oh so betrayed by his so called friends.

"I'm afraid I cannot tell you that," Master Fung said. "But I must remind you to watch over your mouth some more. There are some kind of word that are not appreciate at the temple grounds."

"Hey, I never said anything bad!" Raimundo protested.

Master Fung only raised an eyebrow.

"But I guess I can watch over it anyway?" he added in small voice.

Then backed off, before old monk get any other ideas about his nearest future. It was starting to look terrible already. But Raimundo was anything but resourceful kind of guy, so he would find a way to teach Omi thing or two about life without scaring himself mentally.

He even had idea or two already, but to set them in motion he would need thing or two. That's why he knocked at Kimiko's wall.

"You there?" He asked.

Lack of the doors at their 'rooms' forced them to improvise and to set up many strange rules about simply walking the space in front of the cupboards, just to evade very embarrassing moments.

"Yup. You can walk in," Kimiko said. So he did.

She was wearing her usual monk attire and was in the middle of doing her hair, with ribbon wrapped around her fingers, ready to tie them up into her neat pigtails.

"So, listen..."

"If it is about dropping the talk with Omi on me, forget." She said quickly.

"Relax! I just... I think I need to visit a city, you know, to actually check if the civilization is still out there or it was just some strange hallucination."

"And why are you telling me this?"

"Because you're the only one who can talk Dojo into taking the bonus flying when there is no Wu to find?" Raimundo wasn't beyond begging. "Please, I'm a little desperate right now!"

"Just promise that you buy him some food, and Dojo is all yours," Kimiko rolled her eyes. "And it is about educating Omi, isn't it?"

"Hey, I really don't want to hurt my own brain and master Fung decided that he have some sort of vendetta against me for God's know what reasons. "

"Are you going to buy porn?" she asked suspiciously.

"What?!" Raimundo yelped. "No! Why would you even think that?!"

"Well, you do want to educate Omi..." the Girl smirked, definitely having fun. That really, really wasn't his day, everyone was against him.

"But I don't want to send him to the psychiatric ward, I'm not evil!" Raimundo protested."Nothing too graphic, just the basic. I was thinking about those funny books for little kids actually."

"Huh" Kimiko blinked. "It actually should work."

"So... are you with me?"

"Well, Dojo would get food out of it. What's for me?"

"This is really not my day, isn't it?" He sighed deeply. On the other hand, he was about to get a date with Kimiko. Sort of and with the third party, but still.

It was a day like any else in the week. Jack was pretty used to the routine of working on his robots and dealing with Wuya – and switching TV channels for her. He really needed to create remote she could operate in her ghostly form, because seriously! – with meditation and exercises somewhere in there too. He wasn't hanging out very much upstairs anyway, so nobody would suddenly wonder about his strange habits. On the other hand, he was living here mostly alone anyway, his parents often absent for many different reasons. So it was quite surprising or Jack, when he almost bumped at his mother during his venture into the kitchen.

"Are you going to spend another day down there, or would you keep your poor mother company for once?" She asked with a smirk on her face, when he was about to get back underground with his newfound piece of pie and other goods. Luckily, he didn't jumped, through she managed to startle him quite a bit.

"Mum?" Jack blinked. "You're home!"

"This is third day, dummy" the woman rolled her eyes.

"Oh, " he bit his lip, not sure how he was supposed to act to not offend her even more. "Well, uh... hello?"

Well, this was definitely awkward. Usually he was at least able to tell, when his parents were at home and arrive at some point to welcome them and spend some time with casual chit-chat. Now however he screwed up. Mom looked a little bit down, even if she was hiding her disappointment well, behind jokes about the whole situation.

Jack suddenly felt terribly, terribly guilty.

He wasn't thinking about his parents at all when he was running away. He should at least leave them some sort of note. But no, blowing up the whole house was it. Petite woman in front of him wasn't really his mother, she was mom of Jack from this reality, the one in shallow grave. But she still was his family. And even if they were far away from the image of perfection, they still should be at least trying to be close. Instead he closed himself in the basement and tried to not think about it at all.

Jack licked his lips.

"Well, uh, I guess... why not? It is formal evening or something like that?"

"Just a dinner." She shook her head. Curly, blond hairs danced around her face. And she was smiling, just because he agreed to such tiny thing. "Fancy restaurant and getting the table was a pain, and then your father drop out in the last moment."

"I don't need to wear a tie, right?" Jack moaned. There were few things he truly hated and among them were thing around his throat. Making mum happy was one thing, with tie he always felt like he was about to play hangman on the gallows.

"You can always take it down in the restaurant?" She chucked slightly. "And do one more thing for me, would you?"

"What now?" Jack sighed in defeat.

"Comb your hair, pretty please?"

"Oh, now you are just being pushy…" he shook his head, but decided to obey anyway. He kind of owed her for pretty much ignoring her.

And so, he ended up in black suit, with dark red shirt under it, struggling with his tie. At least his color scheme wasn't trashed by the whole thing. There was but a few colors that suited him at all with his unusual coloring and fiery red dyed hair.

"You are still wearing that war-paint?" She chuckled looking at him from top to bottom, when he reappeared. "Come here, if you need to wear make-up at least do it right!"

Jack decided that fighting wouldn't lead him anywhere, so he just let her do with his face what she wanted too. It was quite strange experience, getting make-up from other person. First of all, he wasn't used to have other people touching his face for such long time. And he never ever used such thin lines while doing his eyes. Nor did he used eyeshadows. They concerned him a little, but he decided to just roll with it. Besides, mom was working really delicate but fast; she definitely knew, what she was doing. When finished, she stepped back, giving his some space and time to check the effects of her effort out.

It looked… definitely different. Way more subtle than his usual thing, without the hook under one eye, but still in rather dark colors. It wasn't girly, at least not much.

"Now, I'm pretty!" Jack smirked to the mirror, whispering to his mom in theatrical manner. "Should I change into a dress, or something?"

She punched him slightly on the shoulder in playful manner.

"Don't break my brain, please. I already had a bad day."

"Just joking!"

"Aw, and I just started to plan a new outfit for you!" Mom giggled. She was wearing fitting cerulean dress, that really bring her blue eyes out, and looked good with that unruly hair of hers. For a woman in her early forties, Edna Spicer looked really good. She was moving with youthful grace and was still really enthusiastic about life. Probably thanks to her he tended to get totally hyper about things he liked.

Jack found himself slightly irritated during the ride to the restaurant. He was really used to driving his vehicles and felt uneasy as a passenger. Lack of control over the machine was bugging him, even if the driver was doing good job. But right now he was playing the role of not even fifteen years old boy, so he hadn't driving license yet. Good thing he was late bloomer and his hormones hit for real only few months before he switched universes. Otherwise it would be hard to explain few things, even if nobody was seeing him all that often. Jack smiled slightly. Screw adulthood, it was good to be a kid.

"Something on your mind?" Mom asked, eyeing him from her seat.

"Nothing much" he shrugged. "It was long time since I went out with you, wasn't it?"

"It is quite hard to drag you out of the basement, sweet pea."

"Guilty and charged!"

After leaving the car offering her his shoulder to mom was just a natural thing to do.

"Huh" She blinked, hugging his arm. "When did you get so high?"

"Growing spurt...?" He said a little nervously. Mom was always on the short side, but she was an adult. Jack was already as high as she was. Quite a surprise. In his mind, mom was always looking down at him with a warm smile and offering warm cookies from freshly backed tray. Now it would be rather difficult to achieve, without height difference.

"Aw, don't be like that," She touched his face, when he tried to look away. "I'm just proud that I have such handsome man for a son."

The dinner itself was... nice.

They talked about nothing particular over their food, just enjoying their time.

Sort of, in Jack's case, since half of his brain was busy with remembering every time he said he had no time for such trivialities. How many days he could help his mom to feel better just by being there, for a few short hours, instead of creating random robots in his basement? It was really bitter pill to swallow.

"Something happened? You looked sad for a moment. "

"It's nothing" Jack shrugged, not liking to hear worry in her voice at all. "I just... we don't spend that much time together, right? And it's my fault too..."

"Jack. Did something happens?" Now she sounded serious, watching him closely.

"No! I uh... I guess I just had a bad day too. They happens to people all the time, right?" he scratched back of his neck. "It just kicks in, sometimes, the fact that you could do better, but you didn't."

"Oh Jack" she sighed deeply. "We all make mistakes. It's normal."

"I guess…" Jack tried to force himself to smile, but it didn't work.

"You know what? I think you're just tired. Let's get back home. We always can kill the rest of the evening with some stupid thing on TV."

"Sounds good," Jack nodded.

He probably was tired. And stressed out, not really because of the whole dinner thing at all. He wasn't really able to relax since he opened the puzzle box for a second time. Or maybe even from the time, when he was still stuck in the box. Now, for some strange reason, he finally found himself at ease, and that sudden peace forced him to realize, how exhausted he was.

Enjoying the comfort of dirty expensive seat, he observed the world through the window on his side, counting things on the other side and just observing other people.

For a moment he was sure he saw Kimiko through the window, so he pretty much plastered himself to the glass to see better, forgetting about his fatigue instantly. But even if she was there, she managed to already get lost among the people on the streets, or maybe walk in into the shop somewhere.

"Jack?"

"Sorry, I through I saw someone I know."

"You actually know people? Sitting all day and night in your basement?"

"There is that thing called the internet, mum. And I do walk out!" He might have scowled a little bit.

"Hard to believe, if you ask me." She winked. Then, suddenly, there was deep sadness all over her face.

"Mom?" Jack asked, feeling uneasy.

"I'm so sorry!" she sniffled. "I'm so very sorry! I… I wasn't there when you almost… and then I just couldn't, because I was so afraid!"

"Hey, 'sokay…" he said softly. "It was quite scary for you and all…"

"What a mother I am!" she turned back, putting hand to her mouth, trying to stop herself from crying. "I should be there for you, but I didn't know how…"

Jack closed his eyes for a moment and sighed. It seemed that he really wasn't only one in the family with such strong reactions, no mention hiding everything behind stupid smiles and playing his role. It seemed mom was doing same thing, but her personae just broke, letting every suppressed emotion out in this sudden outburst.

"Hey, it's okay. You told me yourself, that people make mistakes all the time, right?"He moved towards her and hugged her, mumbling all those stupid things, not really thinking about what he was doing. Hugging was always a good idea. "I'm okay. We're okay."

She hugged him back, wrapping her arms around his jacked and crumple the expensive material in her fists. Whoever was going to iron the thing was going to have helluva challenge.

"You know, we're both tired. We should probably just take fancy clothes off and go straight to sleep, before we fell on the floor."

"Sounds good," she nodded, but did not let him go for another moment or two.

"Thank you for the evening, darling" She kissed him on the cheek, before she finally stepped back. "I'm sorry I wasn't much a company…"

"It wasn't that bad" Jack chuckled, blushing. It felt like his face was on fire. He never was really good with that sort of stuff. Even if he quite liked to being close to other people. It was nice, and it was warm, and it was making him feel alive.

"Hey" he asked, before heading to his room, to take the fancy clothes off. "Can you show me someday how you did this make-up o me? I kinda like it."

xxx

"You saw something, Kim?" Raimundo asked, when the girl turned back to him.

"I don't know for sure. " She shrugged. "For I moment I was sure, I saw Jack in that fancy black car."

Raimundo grinded his teeth. As soon as the day started to looks at least somewhat decent - because he was in the city with pretty girl and all - and then Jack just had to show up his ugly face. He was hating the guy more with each passing day. Just what it was what was making him so vivid, forcing people to look around just because they though they spot him it the crowd? He wasn't anything special. Definitely not a warrior, thin as a stick and high, with that hilariously high-pitched voice and freaking make-up on his face. Even better, he was cooperating with ancient evil, and everyone seemed to be ok with it! Just because he acted so nice, so fair and actually gave them back one of the most useless Shen Gong Wu - just after winning it by cheating.

Raimundo was good with reading people like that. He met a lot of nasty characters in his life and could read them like a book any time, day or night. Spicer was no different. Behind nice smile was a nasty mind, some sort of big scheme. He was definitely about to use naivety of the other monks at some point. He was definitely going to backstab at the most surprising moment.

Why the others couldn't see it? Why they just let this nasty guy manipulate them however he liked, dancing to his game like good obedient puppets? Clay was just nice to everybody around, but he was supposed to be at least bit wary around the enemy. Omi was naïve kid, but he had that crazy instinct of his; why he hadn't fell anything dangerous from Spicer, if Rai himself felt like his skin was about to crawl away, the further from the nasty albino, the better? He probably believed that he could be able to bring the guy to the good side, like that sort of thing happened anywhere besides Lucas's movies.

But Raimundo would be ready for whatever Spicer was planning to do. Wiping that smile from his white face was going to be pure pleasure.


	5. Megan

**A/N: Hello again! This time Jack continues on making small things a little bit better, just because he can do that. And I can drop a little bits of backstory here and there. And Megan is just too cute to not use her.  
Thank you for reading!**

**Chapter 5**  
**Megan**

The Jetbootsu, just like the Third–Arm Stash, activated in the middle of the night.

Luckily, this time Jack wasn't sleeping. Being woken up by the ghost screaming her lungs out at him, or even worse, flying through him was really nasty experience, that was making him feel uneasy for the rest of the day.

Being dragged away from his precious machine wasn't that funny either, but there wasn't anything he could do.

Luckily, he was clever enough to build an autopilot into his plane, so he just asked Wuya to pinpoint the position of Shen Gong Wu, and then turned playlist of soap operas on laptop, sitting the computer on the passenger seat, so the witch would leave him alone to catch up on the sleep a little.

She happened to just love soap operas, the more stupid ones, the better. She was probably just fascinated how awful human being the characters were, interested only in their own well-being, while letting the rest of the world burn to a crisp. Anyway it was good way to keep her away when he was working on something - or sleeping - because bored Wuya was just awful, awful experience.

The seat wasn't the best place to sleep and he would suffer for it later on, but when they arrived nearby the place, the Shen Gong Wu should be, he at least was able to see straight.

Through the whole thing was surreal enough to be some sort of really messed up dream.

The Shen Gong Wu was hidden somewhere in the Europe, through Jack wasn't exactly sure what country they ended up it - the autopilot just took them where Wuya pointed on the electronic map - and it wasn't political one.

The Jetbootsu were hidden in the area that served like some sort of stand-alone gardens, each one screened from the rest, each one with tiny arbors somewhere, most of them build with simple pieces of corrugated iron, rusting here and there. It was rather chaotic place, with flowers blooming among the vegetables and shrubs with some sort of tiny fruits, and a lot of trash along the tiny dirt road which was extending between the gardens.

One of them was more curious than the others, with damaged concrete steps leading towards the tiny building. On the steps somebody used old rubber boots as flowerpots, each shoe standing proudly with daisies or chrysanthemum flowers sticking out.

And among them he could spot the Jetbootsu.

"Just... what the hell...?" Jack mumbled, just standing there and staring.

"Grab the Wu and let's head back," Wuya said. "I need to know if he would walk out of the shower alive again, or not."

"You what...?" Jack blinked.

"There is that one character who's dying a lot. But then, the next episode or so, he just walks out of bathroom, perfectly fine. "

"I need to start checking what the hell I'm downloading for you..." he shook his head.

Then climbed upon the rather shaky fence and jumped on the other side.

He dig up the flowers out of ancient artifacts, then moaned. The shoes were dirty as hell and it would take really long to clean them up. He was almost about to fly to the temple and drop the Shen Gong Wu on the sleeping monks, just because they would the cleaning job for him. But finally, he decided against it. Wuya would chew his head out for something like that.

Jack sighed and looked at the mess he made. The flowers looked miserable, the chunks of rich, dark soil were all over the stairs. Well, somebody definitely would not be happy with this, but at the same time he should be pretty amused by the fact the only thing stoles was a pair of dirty old shoes.

Jack scratched his cheek, unknowingly smearing dirt on his face, thinking.

He would feel just bad leaving things like that, but at the same time he didn't know what currency they were using here. So leaving a bunch of bucks under the doors of the shack wouldn't do the trick. But maybe a chocolate? He was always carrying around a lot of sweets. And they were the expensive kind.

He shrugged, deciding it was better than nothing. He searched the plane for a little while and came out with a bag of sweet treats. He put it under one of the other flower pots.

"You are stupid," Wuya said, observing him from her spot next to the plane. "Why would you ever do that?"

"You know what they are saying about vinegar and honey, right?"

"You would never ever meet this person!"

"True," Jack shrugged. "But sometimes this way things are just more fun than simply taking whatever I want."

"I don't care. Let's go back, I want next episode."

"Sure thing, milady!" Jack said while bending in theatrical bow before her.

"Idiot," the witch rolled her eyes. "And you have mud on your face. Clean yourself, it looks ridiculous."

xxx

He really, really should start to listen when his mother was talking. That would make so many things so much easier!

Jack decided that this time around he would be way more nicer to his parents. Especially after the dinner he had with mum. But sometimes he was too tired, or worked up on something enough that even if the words were reaching his ears, they very completely bypassing his brain. And things usually happened because of that.

"I'm sorry again for leaving you like that!" mum chuckled a little nervously, like she was afraid, that he would turn on his world any time now. If he was younger, he probably be out of the house by now, to tell the truth.

"I'll survive," he sighed with resignation, because he wasn't.

"It is really nice of you!"

"Yeah, that I know too," Jack smirked. "But you soo owe me some fancy eyeshadows for that!"

"Oh?" she raised eyebrows.

"I told you I liked the make–up!"

"You're cute sometimes," mum chuckled again and kissed him on the cheek. "Have fun and don't ruin the house too much!"

"Have fun too. And don't waste yourself too much," Jack winked.

No turning back now for him. By his own miserable attention span he managed to get himself into watching out for Megan, while the rest of the family would be away doing... something party related. Jack really wasn`t interested. The thing what matter what that he was doing it for free. Because they were family and all that crap. Eyeshadows didn't really count.

Not that he needed the money anyway. He would just felt more human that way. Or something like that. At least Megan was five, so even if she would start babbling stories about Wuya and all the Shen Gong Wu business nobody among the adult would believe her anyway. Not that they were actually listen to little blonde girl.

Sad truth was, Megan was similar case to his own. To clever for her own good. Little children with IQ somewhere around Mount Everest were really disturbing thing for adults. Nobody really knew what to do with kids like them. Jack was on his own a lot and somehow managed to not kill himself, so somebody probably through it would be a good idea to drop second oddball on his lap. Because he knew how it was like. And blah blah blah.  
Through why nobody through about leaving this little girl with Ashley, was a little beyond Jack. True, they weren't family, but that girl had much better social skills than Jack, even if they families met few years ago in rather funny place. Near some shrink study to be exact (Jack didn't remember with one) with similar problems going on. Through Jack was at least keeping things clean, while he was turning every piece of electronic into little cute killing machine. Ashley was having her fun in way more stinky way, bringing home every roadkill she could find, and then cutting poor dead animals open. Few years ago she dropped the gore for genetics and bioingeneery and everyone approves. No more scary things to find in the fridge, so whatever she was doing to that cats army of hers was pretty much okay.

Jack rolled his eyes.

Wuya was so going to start laughing at him yet again. For some reason she found the whole situation absolutely hilarious.

And Megan totally didn`t.

He could tell from afar, observing how she acted, while her mother tried to led her to the mansion. Through taking the little devil out of the car could take awhile, it looked like she was using both hands and legs to hold onto the doors.

She was pretty strong for a five years old, but the defeat was unavoidable. Finally her mother managed to pull her out and drag to the mansion. And now they were standing before him, worked out and a little sweaty woman in elegant expensive looking costume and angry little girl with flushed face and puffy cheeks.

"Now Megan," the woman said with false sweetness in her voice. "Say hello to Jack."

"You`re strange!" little girl completely ignored the woman.

"Oh, I`m so sorry!" his aunt said quickly, while looking at him with wariness in her eyes. "I don`t know what come into her today!"

"It`s okay" Jack sighed, hoping that woman would just take a hint and go away.

She did. She was probably running away from him. Or was scared that he is going to change his mind and give the kid back.

Luckily, she did, and so Jack was alone with very little, very angry girl.

"You're still odd," she said.

"So what?" Jack shrugged.

"I don't know," Megan blinked. "But I don't want to be here!"

"You know, squirt, me might make a deal," Jack knelt next to her. "If you don't try to thinks I tell you not to do, we might actually go somewhere else."

"Like where?" she snorted. "To the park? There are other kids. They are stupid."

"I guess they are," sighed Jack. He remembered quite clearly how difficult it was for him to even try to talk to other children. "But think bigger, I can take you to a place that actually is fun."

"They told you not to get to far away from the house" Megan pointed out.

"So?" Jack tilted his head. "Do i look like somebody who listen to the adults?"

She blinked. Then looked at him from the red hairs and goggles, through the black ragged coat to the heavy shoes. Finally, she smiled brightly.

"No!"

"See?" Jack grinned back. "Now, to the point. You listen to me and I take you to... let's say, Katatonia?"

Her eyes grew wide.

It was surprisingly easy to buy Megan, that little devil, who was incarnation of pure terror in his other life. Guess he learned thing or two since then. Little kids liked amusement park, the bigger the better, and little girls loved everything that was cute and fluffy. So he scored double with that one. He now was in the possession of his very own follower.

He was probably up to throwing a lot of money away for stupid thing like rides on cat-like thins, cat-toys, sweets and other unhealthy stuff, but Jack decided that he didn't care much right now. He needed a little bit of fun too.

"So come, squirt, first thing today is a ride in my jet."

"You`re keeping your jet in the basement?"

"Among other things" Jack shrugged slightly.

The ride to the amusement park was better than he thought it would be. Megan pretty much stayed stuck to the window on her side, looking on the ground under them in awe and babbling about all the cats goodies she's going to see.

Then there was the fun part. Keeping Megan in good mood was surprisingly easy. Jack just needed to stuff sweets into her and let her decide what they were going to do next. And boy, she got the potential of evil overlord. They probably made cry a dozen of other kids, especially on those funny little cars that you were supposed to crash into each other in designated area. Megan decided to crash everyone else around and he was using his driving skills obediently. And laughing like madman, to made the whole deal looks better.

One of the parents decided to scold Jack and was just about to open mouth to start reprimanding him on such an awful behavior if his, when Megan started sniffing.

"Leave Jackie alone!" she moaned, spooking him a bit by the mere power of her lungs. How somebody so tiny could make so loud noises without even trying?

The battle ready parent was also slightly shocked by it.

Megan sniffed again and her eyes started watering.

"You scary!"she continued the show, even louder than before.

The battle ready parent decided it was about time to take retreat. Quickly. Because people were staring and they were in many numbers.

Jack looked after the unfortunate adult, then looked down at his mess of a cousin with all of the glory of running nose, face flushed red and quite a fountain of tears.

He sighed and reached to his pocked for tissues. It was lucky he remembered to take them before they leaved the plane.

He knelt next to Megan and tried to calm her down a bit before trying to clean up her face.

"You all right, squirt?" Jack asked softly.

"Yes," she mumbled. "They are stupid."

He just stared for a moment at the little blond girl, who was smiling mischievously through tears, completely calm and satisfied with herself.

"You," he managed to regain his voice. "Are piece of work, aren't you?"

"It's always working!" she said happily and let Jack clean up her face without much of a fuss.

"That was great!" he congratulated her. She was even scarier than he remembered, but this time, Megan seemed to be on his side.

"I'm great!"

"Just don't do it very often, somebody would eventually catch up on you," Jack warned her.

"They I would think of something else!"

"Think of it anyway," He smiled, picking her up from the ground. "It's good to have ace in the sleeve."

"I don't play cards..."

"It meant to have another trick, that nobody knows about"

"Oh!"

He was so digging his own grave. It was really deep, and dark, but Megan was using her magical powers of cute little girl, so he was pretty much doomed anyway.

"I want juice!" she decided after a short while.

"'Kay," Jack smiled, still carrying her. She wasn't that heavy right now, so it wasn't too difficult. "Do you see a shop or joint with drinks somewhere?"

It was actually nearby, just on their left, but he gave her the satisfaction of waving her hand and giving orders. And decided to try this trick out with Wuya. She was quite a bit older than Megan, but seemed to enjoy ordering people around all the same.

He bought them both orange juice, then found nice, lonely bench in sunny spot. Megan wasn't wearing a hat, but it wasn't warm enough for anything even close to a sunstroke. Besides, his skin would alarm him way before something like that could even happened. He put his everyday layer of sunscreen on, but it only helped for awhile.

"I can't get a cat mascot, right?"Megan suddenly asked in rather sad voice.

"Huh?" Jack blinked. "Why not?"

"Because they would know we were away from home?"

"I can always keep it for you . A few days and then I would send it as a present," he smiled, proud of his menacing plan to smuggle a toy.

"You could to that?" she asked, her eyes suddenly huge.

"Well, no backing out for me now, right? Come, squirt, you need to show me which one do you want..."

xxx

Before they get back home, Megan was already asleep. Jack was force to carry her up the stair of the basement and then up some more stairs to the guest room, when she was supposed to spend the night.

After he managed to put her in the bed, he sat next to it on the floor. As every other child, Megan was pretty cute when asleep. She was even smiling slightly, still blushed a little from excitement she lived through during the day.

Jack was tired as hell too. And was feeling too lazy to get up just right now.

Sitting on the floor wasn't going to kill anybody so he could do it as much as he wanted to.

Even after Wuya showed up.

Jack ignored her, while the witch was floating around the room.

"I am surprised" she said finally. "You actually managed to live through it. There is hope for you"

"Har har" Jack rolled his eyes. "Say whatever you want, this is my first minion you're looking at."

"Brought by candy?"

"Among other things" Jack smiled.

"I could give you world, and yet you chose but a small child" Wuya said and touches his arm with her ghostly one. "How that`s even making sense?"

"What can I say? I just like the world like it is. "

"Yet you`re not satisfied with your life" she pointed out.

"Wuya... how it is to be immortal?" Jack decided it was a good time to change a subject.

"Why?" she laughed slightly. "Do you really think you would be able to reach level high enough to keep death at bay?"

"No. I`m just curious."

The witch looked over Megan sleeping form before answering.

"People are born. People are dying. You keep on existing. That`s all. "

"It must be lonely"

Wuya was silent for a long moment.

"I`m impressed" she finally said. "When you hit, you do it hard."

"I just know thing or two about loneliness," Jack smiled and sighed heavily. "So yeah, I would choose one child over the world if that's mean that child would at least remember me. You actually got it good. If you are going to be gone someday, at least there would be still legends about you. Somebody would still remember that you existed."

"Are you afraid of being forgotten?"

"I know I would be. There`s nobody who would actually cry for me." And he really, really wanted that. For somebody to feel sad for him, for somebody to cry for him, to say his name with true smile on the mouth.

"Go to bed. You getting too much philosophical for my tastes." Wuya barked at him. "And wash yourself for crying out loud. I can see from here what that little cockroach was eating all day. Half of it landed on you."

Jack obediently walked towards the bathroom. He probably told the witch a little bit too much about himself. He probably gave her weapon in the hands. Somewhere in the future she would use it against Jack. She was evil witch after all. Funny thing, she was also the most motherly figure in his whole life. Both of it. It was sending rather disturbing message. Right now, things between Jack and his mom were becoming better and they actually talked for a few times, through nothing was as emotional, as her accidental outbreak after that dinner. But they still weren't there, far for the point, where they should be, and Jack found himself afraid, that it was impossible to even get near there. Too much things were still in between them, too much bitter silence to just rebuilt it on spot. He tried to play nice, to smile and act like he was happy with his mouth closed shut.

But from time to time he just wanted to say thing or two aloud, drop a little bit of heavy weigh on his shoulders. Just to cheat himself, to pretend that now it is all better.

He was really, really hopeless case, Jack decided, standing under the shower, letting hot water wash the day of his skin. He didn't like the showers on the house. For some reason the tiles inside were white. Totally white, just like his skin. It was giving him that surreal feeling like he was the resident ghost around here. Imprisoned somewhere between existence and death, forced to forever be alone, just watching groups of people from afar.

Wuya was right.

He was to philosophical for his own good. At least he didn't slip and told Wuya anything important.

xxx

Naturally, Wuya wouldn't be herself, if she didn't try to backstab Jack, when the occasion to do so arrived. Jack just shrugged at the witch cooperating with Ashley and decided it was as good day as any else to take things easy and just observe. And do his nails. Because nothing frustrated people as much as paying more attention to one's nails than to them. The cat burglar naturally stole the Golden Tiger Claws and had her fun at stealing spree in the malls. Jack couldn't decide if he liked plain black nail polish or the one with tiny little bits of dark red glitter.

After the monks deal with Ashley, Wuya came back to Jack with tail between her legs. Well, sort of. At least she dropped unpleasant quite a bit, trying to get back on his good side. She also voted for black nail polish, since the red one was a little bit too much shiny.

Then Tubbimura happened and after nice debut he lost almost all of their Wu to Raimundo.

"Told you hiring people was a bad idea!" Jack said and smirked at the witch.

"There is no reason to be so happy about yourself!" She barked. "It is you who use the Wu anyway!"

"Yes, yes." he sighed. "I guess this is the end to play nicely to the monks?"

"Oh?" Wuya blinked. "Finally? I almost didn't recognize you for a moment!"

"Drop the sarcasm, woman!" Jack grimaced. "I'm not happy, but I like a few of the Wu and I want them back."

"So?" Wuya smiled sweetly. "What are you planning, my apprentice?"

"Oh, I like sound of that one!" Jack smirked. "You see, you keep bugging me about all these robots... want to see, what they are for?"

"Sound interesting," Wuya purred.

"Then show me how magic really is supposed to work," Jack smiled. "I want to have it in my hand."

"Are you sure you could withstand holding such power in palm of your hand? You're still only a mere boy."

"I'm ready."


	6. Taste of power

**A/N: **Hello again! I'm sorry for slowing down with my updates. Right now I'm sewing Christmas presents and it's taking a bit more time than I through it would (kick me, If I ever again try to sew something somewhat anatomically correct). On the other hand, chapters are getting longer. And things are actually happening, since I'm almost finished with build-up. Yay.

Really thanks for reviews and other form of support for all of my stories! And Merry Christmas!

**Chapter 6**  
**Taste of power**

Raimundo was always one of a bunch of kids. Not the oldest nor the youngest, just somewhat in the middle. Old enough to take care of younger siblings, but still young enough to get away with all the pranks he pulled just with a few hours in the corner now and there. That was the fun part. He was free enough to do what he wanted to without huge consequences.

But it was empty sort of freedom. No one really remembered who he was - just another tan skinned kid running around, just another little buddy in clown make-up with a broom in his hands. And he always wanted to be recognized so much! To be someone special, someone powerful, who could do wonderful things. Like superhero from comic book pages, like main hero from an action movie.

And then, one day, day just like any other in a month, a monk came, and in heavily accented English explained Raimundo was a Chosen One. That he was supposed to become xiaolin dragon of wind, destined to fight for the balance in the world, to stand up against forces of evil.

It was the best day in his whole life. It was like the sun was suddenly shining just for him, like wind was blowing only to make him feel good.

Naturally, there was a lot to do before he even could put a single step in China. He needed to be ready. The training schedule was ridiculous and combined with his usual work hours it was total madness. Then, there was also learning language. And boy, Chinese was difficult! When he finally arrived at the temple, he still could barely read, knowing way to few symbols to go through anything more than books for very small children. But at least he could communicate. A lot was still fleeing him, but he could deduce most of it on his own.

Luckily, the rest of the group were able to use English. That one he learned pretty early, just for the work in the circus, since a lot of people were able to talk it, even if they were from strange places.

The living at the temple wasn't like he expected it to be. Well, the training sort of was. Same as a lot of old guys in funny robes walking around, doing stuff.

The rest...

Well, real life cowboy freshly imported from Texas and pretty girl definitely were not something he expected. He quickly learned it wasn't all that easy to be the best. Not when somebody like Omi was around. the kid got huge ego, but he also got crazy training routine. No chances in hell Raimundo could get even close to it and not drop on the floor in pure exhaustion.

So, he once again became one of the bunch. He told himself that it was all right, that they were the best of the best. And he always could become somebody in his friends eyes, right? Because they were going to be just that.

Maybe something more, he through shyly to himself, looking at Kimiko with a corner of his eye.

And then, Jack Spicer showed up, with his perfect Chinese and wicked smile on face impossible to forget, with an ancient witch flying around.

Raimundo always was reading people pretty well. He was proud of this skill almost as much as of being one of the chosen ones.

The people skills just were with him longer, so he was using them better than... well, whatever he was supposed to do as a xiaolin warrior.

The point was, he was able to tell pretty well where the boundaries were with certain people. Or if they were trustworthy. Or were simply hiding something.

And with Spicer, it just wasn't working as it was supposed to. He was getting 'the idiot' vibe from him, but at the same time the dude was cunning like a freaking fox. He was supposed to be evil, working for the Heylin side and all. At the same time, he was the one who was trying to play fair and even calling for showdowns in turns.

But there was something more to him, something Raimundo couldn't guess, no matter how long he was thinking about it. Sometimes it was almost like he was not one, but two guys in one body. or like he was playing role he knew well enough for it to seem like his second skin.

But if it was only a role, who was he really? What was he trying to hide so much to build himself so very complicated mask?

Sure, people could have their secrets and private matters, but that felt way different.

Besides, there was one more thing.

Spicer acted like he knew them all, the xiaolin dragons, and knew them well. Even if he could read people as well as Raimundo was, there simply was no way for him to do it on this level. But for some reason, he knew what was making each of them tick, what they like and what they would do in certain situation. And these were things you could only learn when observing the other person for very long time, constantly.

Was Spicer an ultimate stalker? But it didn't seem very plausible. For one, he was living pretty far from the temple to spy on them - and besides, they were holding the Shroud of Shadows - second, Raimundo overslept several times what resulted in scrubbing every single part of the building they were living in with a toothbrush. There was no possibility he missed any kind of secret camera, no matter how small. And where Spicer could get something like that anyway?

That stuff sure was expensive as hell. No matter, the tiny ones were probably really hard to get or even illegal. He probably should borrow Kimiko's PDA and check it out. He even could google Spicer himself, maybe he had some sort of internet activity going on. There were a lot of pages he could be visiting, or posting stuff, or doing whatever. Internet was a big, pretty crazy place. Ideal for freak like Spicer.

xxx

"Oh, my little Jackie is angry with me?" she blinked, trying to looking innocent. She failed rather miserable at it, but at least it made Jack smile. Wuya was just so awful at trying to sweet-talk anybody at all. It was surprising she even tried it.

"Can we just go with the lesson?" he asked with heavy sigh.

"I could give you power, when I was made of flesh and bone!" So, she wanted to waltz out of teaching him? The question was – why? Was she just lazy, or it was something more, something that could be dangerous for him and his plans for the future? Because she couldn't possibly decide that he would be too dangerous with that scraps and bits of knowledge she was tossing him. No way in hell he could get even close! But the game suddenly felt like it became more dangerous than a few minutes before.

"And took it back on the whim?" Jack smirked. "No way. This way much be much more slower no mention frustrating, but at least it will be mine."

"You`re growing wise, my little apprentice," Wuya smiled. Her ghostly hadn't touched his skin lightly sending waves of cold through his body. Jack couldn't stop shivers.

"Do not worry, my dear," the witch continued in soothing voice. "I am going to teach you well. Soon, you will feel touch of evil and learn what it really means."

He knew already. He saw power in hands of people like Chase Young and Hannibal. He felt it on his own skin when they were treating him like dirt. He remembered clearly, how easy to them was fight with xiaolin monks, when they were using their elemental powers.

To hold similar power in his hand, to actually stood a chance in the fight...

At least he could control his mind a little better now. Several months of training and meditating and finally, he could stop the mad chaos of half fetched ideas in his head, he was able to force himself to concentrate on the single goal.

It was rather odd sensation, like he was collecting all information around him and then throwing out all of the unimportant data. What was left, could lead him to the goal, whatever it was. It helped greatly when he was working on new machines, it also was useful during showdowns. But he was losing control to easily, still more afraid of the world than the world was wary of him.

He needed to change it, he needed to change himself. Maybe that way he would be at least able to like himself a little more.

Long time ago, one of the showdown with Omi was real eye-opener, but Jack desperately blocked out all the information that it gave him into hand. Jack didn't like himself. Jack didn't believe in himself. Jack was afraid that chase was right - that he was nothing but mere insect, completely worthless. He was so sure of his future failure that he backstabbed the only person eager to give him a chance the first occasion he got.

Was he going to do the same this time? He didn't want to. He wanted to forget all about the person he once was, to erase every mistake he even made, to start anew.

Heylin magic was burning through his veins, it's strange warmth taking over the cold fears. It was so different that things he expected. It was much more chaotic, much more wild than he thought it was even possible, truly ancient force going straight through his body like lightning.

They say, if you look too long into the darkness, the darkness looks back. And he felt fiery eyes look straight through his soul, burning through it with unimaginable fury, taking him down, down, down straight into the center of darkness.

Jack tried to scream, but no sound escaped his mouth like he was deep, deep under the water, so far that light of a day was a mere shine so far from him, it could be just sky over him, with stars shining on it, like long lost dreams.

xxx

"Omi, are you all right, buddy?" Raimundo asked approaching his smallest friend carefully. A few days passed since he handed him The Book and he worried and curious at the same time. And for the same reason too – he hadn't slightest idea how Omi would react to that sort of knowledge, sheltered for his whole life from such things. For some reason, he wasn't able to find the whole deal as hilarious as he did in the first place. Because Omi was clearly avoiding him. And Kimiko too. The whole deal definitely wasn't her fault, so Raimundo decided to take action before she would register it and then felt hurt. Or something. That girl was definitely hard to read.

"I am not talking to you!" Omi declared loudly, turning his back to Raimundo and clearly trying to walk away as fast as he could without making it too obvious. His ego definitely wasn't all that helpful while trying to run away from somebody. He tried to cross the temple ground as fast as possible, completely ignoring the fact he wasn't supposed to walk though the herb garden. Some old monk was going to be angry later on, when he discover the shape of his precious datura. Or other plants, Raimundo never had a head for herbs. Everything was stinking the same for him. The one they stomped on had really sharp leaves through, looked almost like somebody carved them with a knife in a way that was supposed to looks like oak leaves, but something went wrong, and it was simply ugly as hell.

"...um, and why exactly?" Raimundo managed to get close without really trying. His legs were way longer than Omi's, so really, it was just a few steps and he was right next to the other monk.

"You were the one who forced me to read that... awful, awful book!" Omi moaned. "I would never be the same as I once was!"

"Oh," Raimundo blinked. "So you actually have read through it!"

"Yes! And it was the greatest mistake of my life!" he screamed it out loudly, his face flushed brightly and eyes closed tight.

It really was one kind of a reaction here, Raimundo decided. Definitely not healthy too. People should be aware of certain things, even if they didn't planned on getting involved anytime soon. Stupid old geezers.

They stopped near the training ground, far enough from the herb garden to not look like poor shape of plants there was their fault at all. The sun was slowly setting, painting the sky in reds and oranges and round shape of the moon was already hanging up there, like it was too impatient to wait for the night like it was supposed to. Monks were wandering here and there, finishing their daily business around the temple ground. Soon enough, there would be prayer cutting through the air, strange words Raimundo couldn't even fully understand hummed in many different voices at once.

"Well, you were asking about that stuff, so..." he started again, oping this time he would find the right words. Naturally, Omi just had to cut in.

"But not like that! These images, they were so..."

"No, they were not all that disturbing," Raimundo rolled his eyes. "Seriously, we checked before buying."

"...we?" Omi blinked. He paled slightly, clearly afraid of hearing the answer. Because he knew it already, just didn't dare say it out loud.

"You know, I bought the book when I was in the city with Kimiko...?" he truly tried to be gentle with it. And definitely wasn't laughing. His shoulders were shaking only because it was cold. Or something.

"She saw that awful, awful thing too?!" Omi's eyes went wide. "But she is a fragile female! She could be really damaged!"

"No, she already knew these things. So did the rest of us," Raimundo chuckled a bit. "And this is normal, you know. We are supposed to know about these things."

"I am not so sure..." he mumbled.

"Oh, just deal with it. You will get used to knowing this."

"But I don't want to!"

"Well, you can't bleach that brain of yours, so give it a rest," Raimundo shrugged. "Go get some training done or something."

"How can I practice with... those things before my eyes?"

"It's not that bad, don't dramatize..."

"But it is!" Omi protested. "I just saw it once and it stayed... it burned itself on the inside of my eyelids! See?"

He definitely tried to show Raimundo the inside of his eyelid.

"Geez, stop that before you hurt yourself, or something!" he grimaced, since it really wasn't something he dreamed about.

Luckily, Omi listened to him and stopped trying to mutilate his own face.

"I am still angry at you for showing me that book," he declared. "But you're right, I cannot let these nasty things to keep me from what is really important!"

"So good I was able to help," Raimundo shook his head. Omi preferred to have only one thing in his head - besides that huge ego of his - and it was training to become the best of the best. He was notoriously declaring that he already was the strongest, but at least has the decency to work for it. Through it was still a little bit beyond him, how the monks managed to keep him that oblivious to some things in the world.

Raimundo sighed. How hilarious Omi wasn't with all that fear of sex-related stuff, he was bringing back the other things from that day. It was probably really stupid of him, to trying find something that probably even wasn't there, but he couldn't just stop himself from recalling that moment when she started looking around for Spicer.

And he just scolded Omi for overreacting!

It was really awful of him, and he tried hard to not act on his feeling - or to not rage at somebody else. Attacking people who hadn't anything to do with the whole situation would be really stupid of him.

"Something happened, partner?" Clay asked, suddenly standing next to him. That guy, he really knew when to show up.

"Omi just reacted to his newfound knowledge," Raimundo smirked and shook his head. "And he's taking it badly."

"And he was the one who's behind that sore look on your face?"

"You know him, he can get a bit irritating at times..."

Clay send him a look.

"Okay, okay, you got me!" Raimundo raised his hands in surrender. "It's not only Omi."

"Do you wanna talk about it?"

"Not really," Raimundo sighed. "It's really stupid and all that."

"I'm used to stupid," the cowboy merely shrugged it off.

"Oh, thank you for being so sincere with me!"

"I'm not talking about you...well, maybe a little," Clay chuckled a bit. "But everyone got their own stupid moments, so nothing much to worry about, you know?"

"You're probably right."

"So... was it about Kimiko?"

"Huh?" Raimundo blinked, then laughed, trying to hide how nervous it made him. "How do you... and where that idea even come from? Why should I feel bad about Kimiko?"

"Because you seem to be down even since you two came back from your little trip to the city?" Clay tilted his head to the side.

"Dude, you must see things, I'm totally fine!"

Clay again just looked at him. It was that sort of look Raimundo usually saw on teacher face, when he was caught cheating or without his homework done. Only master Fung was better in sending that look than Clay, and the cowboy really knew what he was doing.

"Okay, maybe I'm feeling a little down. So what?"

"Did you two have argue, or something?"

"No I just... look, everything was fine, but then Kimiko was sure she spotted Spicer somewhere, and well..." he shrugged. "It was enough to send my good mood to hell."

"Why Spicer?"

"I don't know, she was just sure she saw him..."

"No, I'm asking why he has so strong influence on you,"

"He don't have anything on me!" Raimundo protested, throwing his hand up. "I just... can't stand the guy. There is something definitely off with him and I'm not talking about the fact he's hanging out with a ghost of ancient evil witch like it's the most natural thing in the world. "

"What do you mean?"

"If I knew I would be much happier person," Raimundo snickered. "I know there is something off. I just can't put my finger on it."

"I don't know, partner..." Clay scratched his head under the hat. "I mean, sure, he bring the strange up to the next level, but at the same time he never did anything, you know, evil."

"Yeah," he nodded. "And this is really unnerving. Around him, I constantly feel like he know me way better than he should. Like he predicting it all, or something."

"Predicting?"

"Not like an oracle, or something, he's just… like he know things. And us," Raimundo shook his head. "It's really unnerving. I would like to grab him some time and just shake the answer out of him!"

"Maybe you should talk about it with master Fung?" Clay proposed. "He sure know people stuff."

"He would only tell me that this isn't xiaolin way," he snorted. "Or force more tea down my throat."

"True enough," the nod wasn't an answer Raimundo was looking for, but at least Clay didn't call him crazy or something. For the moment, it should be enough.  
Someday, he was going to catch up on Spicer, get all the answers he wanted, force the freak to spill his secrets, and then, they will see, they all will understand.

xxx

"Jack? Jack!" Wuya was floating over him, on her mask he could see impatience. And maybe, just maybe something like slight worry. Through it was probably just him and wishful thinking.

"I`m okay," he said. His voice felt hoarse and it was almost painful to talk. His mouth was completely dry, so was his throat. He got up to the sitting position. It was really slow, because he was hurting all over him, just like after the time Chase and Hannibal ganged up on him and beaten him up for fun.

"What the hell was that?"

"That was, my dear, power."

"And you didn`t think about warning me before?" he asked and then grimaced. "Darn, I need water. And sugar. Lots of it."

"Even if I told you, you wouldn't be able to comprehend what I was talking about. Am I right?" she said sweetly.

He toyed with the idea for a moment. It was... well, different. Rather difficult to tell the way the other person could understand. And even then... you couldn't not just close that kind of experience in words. It was impossible.

He managed to finally get up and set few shaky steps towards his workbench. He left there some sort of energy drink. Long time out of gas and much to sweet for his tastes, but right now everything was just great. Besides, he drank it fast enough to not fell the taste for too long. After that he threw empty can away and sat down on the bench, ignoring the fact that he was probably crumpling few important files and projects beyond recognition.

"Are you feeling better, my dear apprentice?" Wuya hovered towards him.

"I... don't know," he shrugged. "It was... different than anything I ever felt before. "

"Did you really through you knew everything about the world?" she asked with playful tones in her voice. She probably found it funny, not knowing the whole picture.

"Are you beginning to thinking you made a mistake?" Wuya asked.

"Did I just sold my soul to the devil?"

"...no?" she blinked, probably not able to tell, where that came from.

"Then not really," Jack smirked at her. "I need some time to get over it."

"Jack Spicer, you`re truly interesting creature."

"I bet I am!" he said, then walked out of his lab on slightly shaky legs.

There was a night outside. The skies were shining with the stars way more than anywhere near the cities. It looked almost impossible, so many bright, tiny points on the dark surface, so many different shapes telling different legends from ancient times.

Jack sighed, breathing deeply with cold air. It tasted like salt a bit. The next morning he will surely find hoarfrost shining on the grass leaves like glitter.

Such a strange weather in that time of the year, he thought absently, with his gaze still wandering through constellations.

xxx

Lately, a lot of things were making Raimundo angry. Gritting his teeth wasn't helping all that much. He was sure that if this continue much longer, he would be forced to start looking for denture. And it wasn't only about Spicer.

The fight with obese ninja was one huge hit to his ego. Even if he managed won the second fight, but only because he was lucky enough with the Shen Gong Wu. If the ninja chosen to use anything other than Eye of Dashi, Raimundo definitely would be totally screwed. And even winning didn't change the fact he lose the fight in the first place. Tubbimura just owned him, like he was some sort of a weakling instead of true warrior. The dude was huge ball of fat and still managed to move the way Raimundo could only dream of. He couldn't let something like that happen again. He was the one chosen for greatness, he was supposed to win fights with opponents like that with ease.

That's why he was training over time, hitting the wooden dummy time after time, trying to perfect his strikes, to get better at least a tiny little bit. But each time his fist connected with the wood, he felt like he was getting more and more sloppy. And even more frustrated.

Why couldn't these things just come to him? Why couldn't he started as someone great and strong, as someone the others would look up to? Why all he was good at was putting the clown mask on his face and nothing else? He didn't want to hide like that, to play the role instead of being somebody. But the world proved him over and over again, that putting mask on his face was the only thing that could shield him from this world.

"You are training very hard today, my dear friend!" Omi smiled brightly. "Does it mean you finally decided to listen to my advice?"

"No, it only means I'm pissed off and need to let some of the steam go."

"Steam?" Omi blinked, probably not understanding. While Raimundo's Chinese wasn't all that great, the little monk definitely had similar issues with English. That make conversations rather hilarious at times.

"I'm just in bad mood, alright?" Raimundo sighed. "And the best way to get rid of that sort of things is to punch something. We are kind of supposed to punch things, so..."

"Oh! I understand! In order to made you as good as I, I'm supposed to get you as angry as possible!"

"And where that idea came from?"

"Saw it in the movies about military!" Omi happily gave him the answer.

"I so want to see you trying to use that sort of language around master Fung!" Raimundo laughed shortly. "Seriously, do it! No more dishes for me, ever!"

"The foul language was the one part I did not understood," Omi admitted. "I see not a single reason to use that sort of words, while helping somebody with his training!"

"You're one of a kind, you know that?" Raimundo shook his head.

"Indeed I am!" the little monk nodded vigorously. "Do you wish to spar? Punching air would get you only that far. Training with real, much stronger opponent, just like me would help much more!"

"Oh, now I so want to take that grin out of your face!" Raimundo grinned and jumped straight at him. Omi grinned back, dodging gracefully, then running up on the wall and trying to kick his opponen in the head. Raimundo moved just in time, trying to set his own hit at the same time. As usual, Omi was faster, even if in the air he was having big disadvantage. He blocked the hit with ease, then grabbed Raimundo's arm, forcing him to move forward, right at Omi's knee.

Raimundo stopped the movement with his free hand and then tried to hit Omi with his forehead. The little monk managed to jump back just in time. Raimundo ran after him, trying to use his timing and keeping Omi on defensive as long as possible.

Omi really could use all the advantages of his small size, dancing around his opponent, dodging and jumping, forcing much bigger teen to move, run all over the place and lose way to much energy on heavy hits that never reached their destination. Then, when Raimundo was breathing heavily, he jumped right in the full offensive, kicking and hitting as fast as he could, not letting rest his opponent for even a smallest moment.

After awhile, Raimundo collapsed on the ground, trying to catch his breath, completely exhausted. But it felt good. He definitely burned up part of the fury and the anger and everything else.

"Your condition is definitely poor, my dear friend!" Omi looked at him, looking fresh and only slightly sweaty. "But do not worry! Continue training with me and you will be at least acceptable!"

"Oh, keep boasting!" Raimundo wheezed. "One day I'm going kick your ass so hard you will be making friends with bunnies on the moon!"

"There are bunnies on the moon?" He blinked, surprised.


	7. Breaking the ice

**A/N: **Hello there and happy new year to you all! May the luck be with you at all times!

As always, I'm really grateful for reviews and any other form of support ^^

**Chapter 7**  
**Breaking the ice**

"How quick can you have those of robots of yours ready to use?" Wuya asked. There was tension in her voice even Jack spotted without a problem, so she was truly nervous about something. Two uneventful weeks have passed since he managed to See. He filled most of the time with tinkering with his machines and trying to get a better grasp on that new ability of his. And even wandered from time to time into the mansion. Keeping contact with family was surprisingly nice thing to do. It felt warm on the inside. Even if he couldn't tell then anything about what he really was doing.

"It would still take few days," Jack said carefully, narrowing his eyes. "Why?"

"I can feel new Shen Gong Wu," she wheezed. "And it isn't just one...!"

"That's impossible!" Jack muttered, before he could bit his tongue. But it was way too early! What was with the timeline, it suddenly got hiccups or something? Because not even the Orb of Tornami decided to manifest itself yet, no mention the Serpents Tail…  
Jack was about to start cursing the universe and this completely screwed timeline, when he remembered he wasn't alone. And he definitely shouldn't tell a soul about his knowledge about certain things. Especially if that soul was ghost of an ancient and evil witch.

Luckily, Wuya interpreted his words wrongly.

"No, it could happened," she said quickly." Dashi created hundreds of those items, so it is not that strange. Just unexpected, but not impossible. "

"Can you tell me, how many?" Jack lick his lips. "And how are they working?"

"Four, four of them!"

"Now, that suck!" Jack grimaced. "I can be only in one place at times. And even if I try to ask Tubbimura for help, we would be still lacking in people..."

"Call this Cat-Girl of yours too," Wuya decided. "Even if we can't trust her, she still could be useful."

"Yeah, she can at least get monks attention while I do the real job," Jack rolled his eyes. "But still, one Wu is lost anyway. We need to make a decision here."

The witch told him about the Wu. Like last time, the four which activated at the same time were the Lotus Twister, Longi Kite, Sun Chi Lantern and Tongue of Saiping.

"Longi Kite is completely useless to us as it is for the monks, we both have other means of transportation, " Jack shrugged. "Let the monks have it. But I will definitely need to get the Tongue, it sound really useful."

"The Sun Chi Lantern would be most dangerous tool if the monks learn to use it correctly."

"Yes, I know!" Jack exhaled loudly through his teeth, then smirked. "But at the same time if they screw up with using it, it could be really hilarious. Anyway, let Tubbimura go for it. He feel the need to prove he's not being completely useless, so he would fight really hard to get it."

"So, you wish to send Katnappe after the Lotus Twister?"

"It don't sound too dangerous, so even if she decided to grab the Wu and disappear it would not hurt us too much," Jack shrugged, already standing next to the computer, tapping at the keyboard. "I'm going to send messages now, can you tell me the localization of each one?"

He dealt with organization as fast as he could. Not that it was all that difficult; just talk two idiots into joining the plan and then share his Wu with them. Not that he owed all that much at the moment. Thanks to Tubbimura losing the battle with Raimundo he was left with bunch of items that were pretty much useless in battle. He handed Katnappe some useless junk and threw her out of his lab before she could protest and Tubbimura left with Changing Chopsticks. Jack hoped that at least the ninja would be back with his Wu, he quite like that trinkets. Through it wouldn't be all that inconvenient with him losing the Chopsticks to the monks either. Because it was a matter of one clean thievery. The idiots weren't even able to use them correctly, at least not in the timeline he remembered – no mention the fact they were unable to find practical use for them in the first place – so it would take quite some time before any of them decided to even check if that particular Wu was still in that stupid lair of theirs.

Gathering supplies for his own journey, Jack decided it was quite lucky that the most interesting Wu was localized in the ice wastelands. Snow was pretty much connected to every sport he was quite good at, so his chances in succeeding were growing rapidly. It was also really good time to check out how his Wu detector was working, since Wuya decided to fly after Ashley instead, still angry at the girl for stealing the Golden Tiger Claws and pretty much leading to the doom of one of most useful artifacts.

The detector was working like gold, leading him straight to a block of ice, inside of which he was able to spot dark shade of frozen object which could be only the Shen Gong Wu.

"Well, crap!" Jack decided. It was way too big to drag to the plane and unfroze in the basement and way too hard to just punch it in hoping it would break and free the artifact.

Luckily, he landed nearby and in the plane there was always kit of tools that might come useful. Like blow torch. He would need to be careful, but cutting chunks of ice around the Wu would make possible to transport it home for further defrosting.

He was still alone and there was no dragon in the skies right now, so he had time to set up some sort of tent around his working ground. Temperature difference between air and fire of his torch would make things different and he really didn't want the wind to go into his way too.

The work was really irritating. The ice was freezing all over again as soon as he was pulling away for just a short moment, the hot air was making him sweating, and the cold winter seemed to hit even harder, even if he was partially sheltered now. And huge chunk of ice almost felt on his foot.

He was halfway done, when one of the monks showed up.

It was Raimundo. He entered the tent with a smirk on his face, proud and sure of himself.

Jack felt uneasy. He lowered the torch slowly turning it off, then putted it away. Accidentally triggering it would be a really, really bad thing.

"I can see you made my job easier," Raimundo said with a smug smirk on his face and air of superiority radiating around him.

"Sorry, but you cannot have that one," Jack said, trying to sound like he wasn't afraid. Something about how Pendrosa was acting was really setting him on edge. Something was going to happen and it wouldn't be anything good at all. His instinct was practically screaming at him to get away this instant and as far as possible.

"I'm not asking," Raimundo hissed through his teeth. Then, suddenly, he was right next to Jack, pushing him away. The hit was strong enough that Jack felt down at tent canvas and dragged the whole construction down. The shock was strong enough to push the air out of his lungs. It took Jack a moment to get up and dark spots were still dancing before his eyes.

In the meanwhile, Raimundo walked around the block of ice and choose a spot. Jack got up just to see young monk kicking the ice hard. The rain of sharp, small chunks of ice hit Jack, sending him in the ground again, this time curled up in order to protect his face. Even if he was wearing goggles over his eyes, the whole movement was more or less automatic.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?!" Jack screamed getting up on his feet yet again. Knees were shaking under him and he didn't even cared all that much about it. Dying while looking good about it wasn't high on his list of priorities at all. So he didn't care for his voice reaching really high–pitched tones either.

"Nothing at all," Raimundo didn't even look at Jack, too occupied by looking through all the ice pieces on the ground between them, searching for the Tongue of Saiping.

"Asshole..." Jack mumbled, but he looked down too. Now he definitely would not let Raimundo o away with the Wu. No chance in hell he will be playing nice also. The fucker could seriously hurt him and he didn't even cared! The anger took place of fear almost instantly, building up inside him at admirable pace.

They saw the artifact almost in the same moment and managed to get to the Wu in similar way.

"Spicer, I challenge you!" Raimundo spat, before Jack even opened his mouth.

"Your whatever, versus mine Eye of Dashi!" Raimundo grinned nastily. He knew that Jack currently hadn't many Wu, nor spectacular powerful ones. And he was using it to his advantage, pretty much putting on the table one of the most dangerous one of them all. "This is going to be a race. First person who grabs the Wu, wins it all. And to make things more interesting, we're racing on thin ice."

"You're on!" Jack hissed through his teeth.

The area created by magic for showdown was rather underwhelming. It was just huge frozen lake, with snow chunks here and shining with wet spots elsewhere.

The Tongue of Saiping was floating for a short moments between the boys, shining with bright golden light, and then flew away, heading straight in the center of the lake surface.

The ice croaked dangerously under them.

They started to moving forward at the same moment. Jack had more practice with moving on ice, so he was faster even without ice skates. But it was still quite slow pace. Why in the hell Pendrosa found the walking on thin ice a material for challenge? One could not die during the showdown, but falling into the freezing water would definitely be truly traumatizing experience. Especially if the ice surface would close upon the unlucky fellow.

Jack bit his lip. Just concentrate on moving forward, he reminded himself. Just walk, keep away from the wet spots on the ice surface as far as possible, grab the Wu, then run for your life…

Naturally, his enemy had other ideas.

"Eye of Dashi!" Raimundo roared, freeing the lightning bolt.

Jack immediately dropped on the ice, not carrying at all if he bruise badly by doing so. Everything was better than getting struck by the lightning. Luckily, the one created by the Shen Gong Wu was slower than the real one and it flew right over him, to finally stop at the far end of the arena. Ice made quite disturbing, croaking sound that echoed loudly in the air. Raimundo used his momentary advantage and skills to move forward.

Jack cursed under his breath. The monk was almost there. And he really couldn't let Pendrosa get the Wu. The idiot almost seriously hurt him twice in a row!

Jack get onto his knees and arms, but he not got up. On all four his face was at least partially hidden. And that was exactly what he needed right now. He took deep breath, calling upon the Sight. Wuya said, that it was mostly useless ability, simply letting its user to see the connection between everything in the world, turning the clearest of image into messed up piece of colors and thin lines. But she did not possessed the knowledge he did, no mention the understanding. She learned to simply force the world to work her way, without really understanding why it was acting in specific way at all.

Jack himself didn't know everything, wasn't even close, but he understood at least a bit and could think his way through several other details, what gave him at least idea what he was supposed to do. He looked for the blue threats around his left hand, still lying on the ice, burning with bright red fire for some reason. Then Jack raised his head, finding connection between threads between him and the ice surface right next to the Tongue, where Raimundo was heading.

"Crush..." he whispered. The sound echoed in the air in small red buzz of something that looked like lightning, then moved through him straight into the ice. He wasn't really going to crush anything at all. It was all about the sound of this word, which somehow seemed to be just right for this situation. All Jack did, was force few tiny bits to move faster. The chain reaction caused by it was almost immediate.

The ice broke completely by itself with loud crushing noise. Raimundo screamed and fell on the hard surface, far enough from the crack that water overflowing from under ice did not even touched him.

This was his chance. Jack grabbed the Shen Gong Wu of his choosing, the Mantis Flip Coin, and whispered its name and jumped forward, feeling magic of artifact enchanting his abilities.

He didn't dare landing on his feet, the ice was too thin for risking something like that. He landed on his shoulder and rolled over in the direction of Wu. The ice surface was breaking apart following his footsteps with loud, high pitched shriek of breaking glass.

Jack cursed and jumped forward once more, this time landing completely ungracefully right on the Wu. In the same moment the freezing water hit him with all its force. He was still shaken up, when magical territory disappeared. But he won! It was risky, it was stupid as hell, but he managed to win the showdown and use his new abilities. Almost hurting himself in the process, but it was quite good start.

He headed towards his plane, activating the Jetbootsu before Raimundo decided to do something he wouldn't like. He looked over his shoulder just once, only to meet Raimundo's eyes. What he saw in them, shaken him way more than freezing water, still dripping from his clothes.

xxx

"Hello, Tubbi! Need a ride?"

"Katnappe, right?" he nodded in her direction, stopping by the driver doors. The shiny convertible of hers definitely the best thing that happened to him all day. And the fact it was really fancy car didn't really matter. He never was the one to recognize even the most popular marks on the market nor he was interested in motorization at all. It was just about pretty girl stopping by rather than driving away and leaving him in the cloud of dust. Just a small mercy after rather misfortunate loss and wandering around really hot desert for far too long.

"You get the accent wrong, but yes," the girl smiled charmingly. "So? A ride?"

"Why are you here?" he asked. "Not that I'm not grateful for the gesture, but..."

"Oh, don't be like that, my interests in you are genuine!" she laughed a little. "Well, mostly."

He walked around the car and then climbed in the passenger seat, since a ride would be quite a nice thing in day like this one. He needed his rest before he start training, to get better and stronger. Next time he will met with the xiaolin monks, he would definitely walk away victorious. He had too.

Tubbimura eyes the girl in the driver seat. She didn't look like somebody beaten up too badly. Smirk on her face was saying just the opposite of it. And sparks in her eyes were telling him even more.

"You wishes to backstab Spicer, am I right?"

"What if I am?" She answered with a question and mischievous smile glued to her face.

"Well, you're out of luck then. I'm ashamed to admit it, but I lost my showdown."

"Aw, that's too bad!" she patted him on the knee. "But do not worry, I'm not like Spicer. I don't throw people away only because they were out of luck."

"What do you need from me?"

"Just your cooperation, dear!" her grin widened.

"You really want to betray Spicer," he raised eyebrow.

"Can you blame me?" the girl blinked, making innocent face. "He never ever cared about us, didn't he? Like he was sure from the start we aren't worthy of his time..."

Tubbimura was silent, thinking.

The Spicer kid indeed was acting strange towards him. With that little smile on his mouth and one eyebrow slightly raised, like he found hiring Tubbimura as a really good joke. it was truly infuriating, how this boy was confident about it, no mention how he acted during the fight. Polishing his nails, how dared he!

"You're right," Tubbimura finally nodded. "He indeed was truly awful man to work with."

"See?" Ashley said happily. "And I'm much better than him!"

"Are you telling me you want to hire me?"

"Not at all," she shook her head. "What I'm proposing is a partnership."

"Partnership?"

"No bossing around, my dear friend. Only working together. You in?"

"Where's the catch?" Tubbimura asked with a heavy sight. There always was some sort of a catch, no matter how good things seemed to look at first. He knew all too well that everything and everyone had a price. So he preferred to snoop around for a bit, just to check if he wasn't selling himself cheap.

"Catch?" she once again played the innocent card. "What catch? I just found the Shen Gong Wu interesting enough to be worthy fighting for. Aren't you?"

"They are indeed powerful tools," he carefully agreed, observing her with a corner of his eye, hoping for catching at least a glimpse of something that would tell him of her true agenda.

"And that's pretty good reason to grab a hold on a few of them, right?" she asked sweetly.

"What do you propose?"

"Right now, we have not many Shen Gong Wu," she sighed dramatically. "But I'm sure soon enough our situation will become way better!"

"Are you planning on stealing from Spicer?" Tubbimura raised eyebrows. "Or from the monks?"

"That is one way to do things," she shrugged. "Through I think, you don't like the idea all that much, don't you?"

"Indeed, I prefer honorable fight," Tubbimura nodded in agreement.

"So we can do just that," Ashley grinned. "Through I wouldn't put honor anywhere near Spicer. He's so much less than you are..."

"What is your plan?"

"First thing, we need to learn how to fight together well. With enemies like the Xiaolin monks we will need every advantage we can get, don't we?"

"And afterwards?" he snorted. "Taking over the world?"

"Nah," Ashley grimaced. "That would be just boring. I'm more for long, comfortable life... And I bet there would be a lot of strong guys who would like to try their skills against yours, right?"

xxx

Raimundo didn't run after Spicer. He stayed where he was, sitting where the end of showdown left him. He couldn't believe, what he just saw. Was that for real? Or just his mind was playing trick on him? It shouldn't be possible. It shouldn't have happened.

But no, the more he was thinking about it, the more he was sure that Spicer's eyes indeed flashed with bright red light when he touched the ice surface. And moment later the ice broke in straight line, heading right at him in astonishing pace.

He really did it. He really crossed the line and advanced from irritating obstacle to true danger. Raimundo exhaled deeply and then stood up, grimacing. The snow was really cold and he just touched it with his bare hand. He shrugged, then looked around.

Spicer left with the Wu in hurry, leaving everything else behind. Maybe he could find here something useful? He needed to wait for Dojo anyway, he might at least do something more interesting than standing there and freezing his ass off. And he might put the tent back up since it already was here. No reason to stand in the freezing wind if he hadn't to do so...

After he was done, he could look through abandoned stuff. Still needed to dig it out of the snow through. The stuff managed to get pretty much everywhere, even in the places that seemed impossible. There was a blow torch and other cutting tools around the place, through the torch stopped working. Shaking it or hitting it multiple times didn't work. he also found a suitcase with aluminium bag inside. Jack probably planned to carry still frozen Shen Gong Wu in it and defrost it at home. Or wherever he lived.

Lucky for him, there also was thermal flask with hot cocoa.

"Well, what do you know..." Raimundo mumbled taking a careful sip. Then another one, much bigger. Whoever Spicer was, he surely got all the good stuff. It tasted really good, not like that powdery stuff he remembered drinking from time to time. Thick and creamy, sweet almost enough to make his taste bud hurt from over–exercise.

"I'm going to kick his ass anyway," he declared loudly, making himself more comfortable in his waiting spot. There was a lot to think about, starting with some plan how to beat Spicer into the ground to how in the hell he was actually going to tell the others about his miserable failure in the Showdown.

xxx

"Crap, crap, crap!" was pretty much everything that was coming from Spicer's mouth, since the kid got back from his little trip for the Tongue of Saiping. He was pacing in his basement, walking in circles and looked like he was close to tearing hair out of his head.

"What it is now?" Wuya asked. She swallowed the 'boy' part down, knowing it would enrage her young apprentice even more. He was always so touchy upon this subject, almost like that single world was hurting him. Irritating. Compared to her he was but a child and was going to stay this way, no matter how old he managed to grow before he will finally die.

"You get the Wu you wanted most of them all," she continued. "True enough, that Cat-Girl decided to betray us once more, but you expected this already..."

"It's not about Ashley!" Jack shook his head, still not able to banish his panic away. "I think he saw it!"

"Who saw what?" the witch blinked, still unable to understand what he was talking about.

"I was fighting for the Shen Gong Wu with Raimundo," Jack sighed heavily, closing his eyes. "He was winning and almost threw me underwater too, with the way he was using the Eye of Dashi..."

"And?"

"And I used the magic to break the ice before him," he groaned. "I was careful to make it look natural, but I'm sure he managed to caught a glimpse of my eyes!"

"And why are you so stressed up about something like that?" Wuya chuckled a bit. "You wanted to learn magic to stand a chance against the Xiaolin Dragons in the first place!"

"Yes, I did," Jack rolled his eyes. "And I was planning on using that power... but when I would be way more stronger than now! I wanted keep them oblivious to my abilities as long as possible! But now... now they will be able to see me as a treat!"

"Oh, how tricky of you!"

"Well, now it doesn't matter!" Jack whined. "The truth is out... damn, I should have just let him get the Wu instead!"

"Oh, don't be like that!" Wuya patted him on the shoulder. Well, reached with one of her ghostly arms and simulated patting, since she hadn't no body to pat anyone with. But as far as she could tell, he appreciated the gesture.

"You don't know if he really saw it," she continued after that moment of pantomime. "And even if, he has only his word to prove it. Do you think somebody would really believe such story?"

"Well, everyone knows already we're working together..." Jack chewed on his lip.

"But would they believe I will be eager to share my secrets? That dragon of theirs, he do not hold a very high opinion about the generosity of mine,"

"Guess you're right," Jack finally sat down and relaxed a bit. "There is no way telling if they really knows about me. We need to wait to see about that one."

"Even if young Raimundo saw your magic, you can always just act like it was just his very own brain tricking him," Wuya proposed. It sounded like a pretty good idea. It should keep the kid from pacing on the walls like a lost fly.

"You mean, lie and play innocent?" Jack raised eyebrow. "But I'm not really good liar, you know..."

"That might be a problem," the witch sighed. "Whatever the situation is, now is the time you plan, isn't it?"

"Yeah," Jack smiled. "That what I do. Planning for all sort of occasions... I should put that on a logo, or something."

"Do that," Wuya nodded. "It will definitely give you some peace."

"I also need to learn more…" he mumbled, then looked at her, waiting for reaction.

"How so?" she would definitely raise eyebrows if only she had her physical body at disposal. But without it she could only put a slightly surprised expression on the mask she used as face of sort.

Jack sighed, then decided to gave her explanation.

"If they decide that I AM dangerous, they definitely would fight seriously with me. And then, there wouldn't be any chance for me to get any Wu at all," he visibly shuddered. "No mention the beating I could get out of it."

"So, you're just afraid?"

"You should be too," Jack smirked. "Since I'm the only one who's loyal to you enough to keep coming back, even if you switch sides on me–"

"Oh, you still bring it on?" Wuya chirped sweetly. "You know you're the only one I'm teaching..."

"Yeah. And the more useful I'm to you, the more powerful I am, right?"

"Are you planning on overpowering me, my dear student?"

"You? After you finally gain your body back?"Jack laughed silently. "I have read through legends, you know. There's no chance you would ever consider me as a treat."

And that was definitely the truth. Well, almost. He not only managed to learn all he could from the books about his frienemy of sorts, but he saw with his own eyes, how powerful she could be, while holding upon all of her powers. It was painful to admit, but if Chase didn't take her magic away when he decided to let her gain her material form once more, even he would definitely get his scaly ass kicked pretty badly. Wuya was in the league of her own way ahead of anybody else. To think, what a dangerous game he was playing…

"True enough," she nodded, smiling lazily. "If I'm going to have only one pawn, let it be at least a powerful one."

"Only a pawn?" Jack snorted, displeased with her statement. "I hoped at least for a knight..."

xxx

Later that day, he climbed up the stairs, to visit his second life. Or maybe it was the third? Hard to tell. Jack shook his head. There was lie upon a lie with a lie at its base. How long, before something goes wrong and his facade fell apart like a house of cards? Because things like that never last long. Sooner or later, Wuya would get her brain back and find out he was just milking everything he could get out of her.

And the moment was closing in. The moment she would try to construct Mala Mala Jong was the moment he will be forced to take a run for it. Not that he hadn't planned for it since the very beginning. He needed a power of his own, not powerful witches and demons wandering around and wreaking havoc. No mention, the taking over the world part.

But that one wasn't the scary one. It was going to be revealed anyway. When Raimundo discovered his magic, Jack didn't freaked out as much as he wanted Wuya to believe, through that one was rather troublesome. No, there was only one thing that actually scared him witless even when he was only thinking about it.

"Hi, mom," he smiled brightly, feeling anything but. "How was your day?"

"Oh, hi honey!" she smiled back. "Out of your basement to catch some fresh air?"

"You can say that," he shrugged. "And I don't spend there that much of my time anyway!" That he added quickly, because she was just about to raise her eyebrow. And then she would probably tell him to try out some other sport and, before he will be able to even blink, he would end up in ridiculous girly get–up, doing some strange stuff that somebody not right in the head called once a sport. Once was enough. It literally took him years to get out of the whole deal with figure skating.

"Oh really?" mom raised her eyebrow anyway.

"Really! And I got plenty of exercise also!" Jack protested loudly, waving his hands and feeling unavoidable doom approaching.

"Oh?" she giggled. "You started fitness training down there?"

"No, I told you before, I'm getting out! Travelling the world! And stuff!"

"Yeah, that 'stuff' would be about that," mom shook her head. "Would you mind helping me a bit in the kitchen?"

"I guess so?" Jack blinked, a little bit surprised. She never before asked him for something like that. On the other hand, he never was spending a lot of time with his parents, finding it annoying as hell. Funny, how people change.

So he ended up chopping and slicing things, while mom was mixing the ingredients and adding spices.

It smelled nice.

It felt nice too.

"Did something happened?" she asked suddenly.

"Huh?" Jack blinked. "No, why are you asking?"

"You seem to be down a little," she smiled gently. "You can talk to me, if you want."

"I know I can," Jack stopped chopping and put the knife away. "You told me it once before."

"And you told me, you're feeling okay," she sighed. "But you seemed so sad all the time. I just can't stop, but worry. You know how's mothers are, right?" she took new portion of chopped things from him. "We always worry, even if there's no real reason to do so."

xxx

"You saw how the world looked like," Jack recalled once more Wuya's words, almost hearing her croaking voice in his ears. "And now, you're going to try to feel it. Not like touching it, but really feeling, like odor in the air, ghostly touch on your shadow. It can help you feel the disturbance in the balance between good and evil, but also recognize danger coming in your way. The xiaolin side calls it by the name of Tiger Instincts, but they barely scratched the surface."

But how in the hell he was supposed to feel anything at all, with her hanging in front of his face? Even as a merely ghost, her presence was overwhelming.

But he was at least able to feel that one alright. But it was hard not to. She was like burning darkness, swallowing everything around her without even thinking about it.

Wuya naturally promised him more, much more, but he was supposed to get more Sheng Gong Wu for that to happen.

And the Helmet of Jong just activated.

Winning it was easy enough, because of Omi's stupid idea of a showdown.

Now, it was just waiting for the Hearth of Jong. And Wuya knew that too, trying with all her might to force his hand.

And why not?

Sometime, he needed to test his abilities. Sometime, he needed to take a chance and see, how far he was able to go, before it would be too much for him to handle. Why not now? When nobody, not even him, know what he is able to do?


End file.
